Oh... "drug problem" seems to be a severe understatement of the
drug usage Down Under, check out this report: rampant
drug use exposed in under-25s
Some very tantalising stats...
ALMOST half of all Australians aged under 25 have used illicit
drugs and view their use as acceptable, a new survey shows.
Although possession or use of most illicit drugs could result in a
jail sentence, research shows more than six million people of all
ages were undeterred.
Almost half of them took illicit drugs other than marijuana and 2.5
million in total had used illicit drugs of some kind in the past
year.
One in three Australians have tried marijuana at least once.
...
Australia has one of the highest rates of illegal substance abuse
in the world...
More info from a
wikipedia article:
There is a movement in Australia to make some narcotics
decriminalised, particularly marijuana, the possession of such, in
most states being a non-convictable offence (the definition of what
constitutes possession differs however). ...
As a result of the decriminalisation, the punishments for drug use
and drug dealing in Australia are typically very small, with many
convicted small-time drug dealers not having to spend any time in
jail.
There is an associated pro-drugs culture amongst a minority of the
youth of Australia. The popular national youth radio station,
Triple J radio often refers to drug use with a nuetral sentiment,
rarely discouraging their use. Many take this nuetrality as
an encouragement to use drugs, and a feeling of drug abuse being
acceptable in Australia.
