YWCA Victoria

Letter to the Editor of Age and Australian

So Nicole Kidman has been quoted recently as saying that she has taken every

drug under the sun.

This comes as no surprise to me, given the prevalence of drugs in our

community and the widespread drug use among young women.

Nicole Kidman is glamorous, successful, attractive, a mother of two children

and looked up to by a generation of young women.

Teenagers will surely be assessing if they should listen to their parents

and Mr Howard’s “Just say no” attitude towards drugs or Nicole Kidman’s open

and frank acknowledgement of the experimental nature of youth. What is lacking in the current debate is an acknowledgement that recreational illicit drug use is much wider than heroin use, that such use is prevalent in youth culture and that the cause of drug abuse (rather than drug use) is much more complex than good or bad parenting.

Statistically, more young women will die from the side effects of tabacco abuse than illicit drug abuse. According to Anti-Cancer Council statistics, by the age of 15, 28%

of girls are regular smokers (compared to 24% of boys) and one out of two

lifetime smokers will die from tobacco related illnesses.

Smoking is going to cause death but it is slow and will take years of

illness. On the other hand, heroin deaths are more immediate. The average

heroin overdose victim is between 25 and 30 years old, and has only been

using for an average of 7-10 years (according to the Drug Policy Expert

Committee). Heroin overdoes are often public and society seems to have a

voyeuristic interest in the “junkie lifestyle” that the dangers of smoking

just can’t compete with.

The loss of life from the use of drugs, whether it be heroin or tobacco, is

tragic and senseless and the reasons why young people are attracted to a life of drug abuse need to be fully explored and debated, and if possible, preventative measures taken to ensure the next generation is not so attracted. Whilst we applaud any government for attempting to address the issues associated with why young people, be they men or women, turn to a lifestyle of substance abuse, the present debate needs to be widened both in terms of the drugs which are targetted for debate and the possible reasons why young people may be becoming addicted to and dying from them, to ensure relevance to young people.

Yours sincerely

Liberty Sanger

President

YWCA Victoria