More substance abuse treatment services needed

A drug policy group is looking for better treatment services for drug and alcohol abuse in regional areas such because the Far West.

A report by the Australian Bureau of Statistics has found folks in regional and rural areas are up to forty per cent more more likely to abuse alcohol than folks in capital cities.

It also discovered abuse of opiate-based prescription pain killers is extra common in the bush.
The chief govt of Anex, John Ryan, says the current distribution of treatment providers does not match the need.

"We often consider drug problems as, you understand, the streets of the inner metropolis, this research actually exhibits that we have vital issues outdoors of the inner cities, and the drug therapy system doesn't actually match what is going on on within the community.

"That's to say that services are concentrated in the large cities, and folks within the nation are being neglected."

He says some occupations in regional Australia are linked to higher charges of addiction to prescription drugs.

"The work in mining, forestry and farming is a riskier occupation for injuries, and reveals that 23 per cent more more likely to have back pain outside of the foremost cities.

"Meaning it is driving an epidemic of prescription opiate-based ache killers and dependence on ache killers."