Illicit Drug Use

The Hon. C. BONAROS (15:02): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Health and Wellbeing a question about South Australia's illegal drug consumption.

Leave granted.

The Hon. C. BONAROS: Once again, Adelaide has won the dubious distinction of being the meth capital of Australia and, to make matters worse, South Australia also has the highest detections of a dangerous new synthetic drug. The latest report from the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission's annual wastewater data analysis reveals that SA has the highest number of mephedrone—street name, meow meow—detections in the country. The report also shows cannabis readings at the nine test sites in SA—four in Adelaide and five in regional areas—were the highest since testing began in 2011.

As we know, only a few short months ago, Mount Gambier had the unenviable label of being Australia's ice capital. In March the federal health minister, Greg Hunt, announced a $20 million package for in-need drug and alcohol treatment services across Australia. At the time, the minister acknowledged, and I quote: 'Methamphetamine use in South Australia is well above the national average both in urban and regional areas.'

My question to the minister is: what is the government doing to address the latest disturbing findings of the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission's report, and what, if any, extra funds were committed in this week's budget to tackle head-on the scourge of drug abuse and addiction in South Australia?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:04): I think it is important to realise that the budgets are in four-year cycles, and in the last budget year we welcomed an additional $23 million invested by the commonwealth, some of which is being delivered within the DASA suite of services part of the Southern Adelaide Local Health Network. There certainly is a range of data published under the National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program. The main findings in relation to methamphetamine were that the highest consumption levels in August 2018 were in Perth and in regional Western Australia, with average regional consumption levels above those in capital cities. The exception to this was in South Australia, where average consumption was actually higher in Adelaide than in the regional areas.

But, methamphetamine consumption levels declined substantially in Adelaide between February and June 2018. There were increases in consumption for August 2018, but these levels still remain lower than those from earlier in 2018. That is monitoring in terms of what is being consumed.

In terms of treatment services, the presentation rates, the capacity for people to realise they have a problem and seek help, also fluctuates. In terms of the government's commitments, in the first Lucas budget we committed to the Matrix drug rehabilitation program in the Riverland, and I am looking forward to visiting that facility very shortly and discussing with them the outcomes of the pilot. That is a pilot program that has been well established in the United States. It has been facilitated within the metropolitan area, particularly with funding from the primary health networks from the commonwealth.

One of the key goals of the Marshall Liberal government in undertaking a pilot in the country areas was to assess the efficacy of that model in a regional context. It is an outpatient-based program, which is therefore likely to be more easily undertaken by a person in country South Australia. They do not have to move to the city; they have a live-in program and they can continue to deal with their drug dependency and stay in their own communities and engage with their own workplace and families. I certainly appreciate that the drug stats, in terms of the wastewater monitoring, do fluctuate, but we are continuing to roll out both state-funded programs and programs in partnership with the federal government.