{"id":2941,"date":"2021-08-06T16:20:47","date_gmt":"2021-08-06T06:20:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/cannabis-use-up-treatment-up-costs-to-community-and-families\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T12:45:27","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T01:45:27","slug":"cannabis-use-up-treatment-up-costs-to-community-and-families","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/cannabis-use-up-treatment-up-costs-to-community-and-families\/","title":{"rendered":"Cannabis Use Up \u2013 Treatment Up \u2013 Costs to Community and Families\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; background-color: inherit; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; caret-color: auto;\">According to recent report released by the <\/span><em style=\"font-size: 12pt; background-color: inherit; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; caret-color: auto;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aihw.gov.au\/reports\/alcohol-other-drug-treatment-services\/alcohol-other-drug-treatment-services-australia\/contents\/drugs-of-concern\/cannabis\">Australian Institute of Health &amp; Welfare<\/a><\/em><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; background-color: inherit; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; caret-color: auto;\">, cannabis use disorders and treatment for such is increasing. And as the following data reveals, the demographic experiencing the most harm is the under 30 yr. cohort.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Before reading the following excerpt from this report, it is important to note a couple of important facts:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The brain is still developing up to the age of 25-28 for females and 28-32 for males or <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/news\/2010-12-brain-fully-mature-30s-40s.html\">even later<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Over 90% of all addictions burgeon before the age of 30.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Potencies of engineered cannabis \u2018plant\u2019 are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC6312155\/\">significantly greater<\/a> than even in the last 5 years. &nbsp;More than that, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drugabuse.gov\/publications\/drugfacts\/marijuana-concentrates\">extraction and delivery methods of THC<\/a> in such mediums as wax or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thegrowthop.com\/cannabis-culture\/cannabis-communities\/your-guide-to-shatter-a-highly-potent-cannabis-extract\">\u2018shatter\u2019 can be as high as 90% THC<\/a> .<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Each of the following treatment processes not only has a significant dollar value attached to them, but the data also points to other tacit costs, such as loss of productivity, welfare costs and harm to others well-being.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><strong><em>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; The Data<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li data-mce-word-list=\"1\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><em>In 2019\u201320, cannabis was reported as a drug of concern in one-third (33%) of all closed treatment episodes, either as a principal or additional drug of concern:<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<li data-mce-word-list=\"1\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><em>cannabis was the third most common principal drug of concern in nearly 1 in 5 (18% or 40,305) treatment episodes<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<li data-mce-word-list=\"1\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><em>the most common additional drugs of concern reported with cannabis included alcohol (32%), nicotine (24%) or amphetamines (23%) but these drugs are not the subject of any treatment within the episode (Figure DRUGS1; tables SD.6\u20138).<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<li data-mce-word-list=\"1\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><em>In 2019\u201320, 27,701 clients received treatment where cannabis was the principal drug of concern, two-thirds (66%) of clients were male and nearly 1 in 5 (19%) were Indigenous Australians (tables SC.6\u2013SC.8, SCR.26).<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<li data-mce-word-list=\"1\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><em>For clients whose principal drug of concern was cannabis: male (68%) and female (67%) clients were most likely to be aged 10\u201329&nbsp;<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-2939\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Pict_1.png\" alt=\"Pict 1\" width=\"762\" height=\"706\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Pict_1-300x279.png 300w, https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Pict_1-768x713.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 762px) 100vw, 762px\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><strong><em>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Treatment<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left; padding-left: 90px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><em><em>Since 2010\u201311, counselling has remained the most common form of treatment, accounting for around&nbsp;40% (15,801 episodes in 2019\u201320) of cannabis treatment episodes annually. In 2019\u201320, both support&nbsp;and case management (6,599 episodes), and information and education (6,393 episodes) were the second most common main treatment types (both 16%) after counselling&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/em>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><em>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;In 2019\u201320, for treatment episodes where cannabis was the principal drug of concern:<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li data-mce-word-list=\"1\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><em>treatment was most likely to take place in a non-residential treatment facility (65%)<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<li data-mce-word-list=\"1\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><em>most (80%) episodes where counselling was the main treatment type took place in a<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<li data-mce-word-list=\"1\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><em>non\u2013residential treatment facility (Table SD.44)<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<li data-mce-word-list=\"1\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><em>almost half (46%) of episodes lasted 2 days to 90 days and 33% ended within 1 day (Table SE.25)<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<li data-mce-word-list=\"1\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><em>the median duration of a treatment episode was 22 days<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<li data-mce-word-list=\"1\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><em>treatment duration varied by treatment type:<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<li data-mce-word-list=\"1\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><em>the median duration for counselling was 8 weeks (57 days)<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<li data-mce-word-list=\"1\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><em>support and case management as the main treatment type had a median duration of 6 weeks (43 days)<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<li data-mce-word-list=\"1\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><em>rehabilitation lasted nearly 6 weeks (40 days)<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<li data-mce-word-list=\"1\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><em>information and education\/assessment only had the shortest duration (1 day) (Table SD.47)<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<li data-mce-word-list=\"1\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><em>two-thirds (66%) of closed episodes ended with an expected cessation<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<li data-mce-word-list=\"1\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><em>where clients were diverted from the criminal justice system, 35% completed treatment due to programs sanctioned by a drug court, and 3 in 10 (31%) treatment episodes ended with an expected treatment completion, with 3% of episodes ending unexpectedly (Table SD.45).<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><em>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; <strong>&nbsp;Source of Referral and Diversion Clients<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li data-mce-word-list=\"1\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><em>In 2019\u201320, for treatment episodes where cannabis was the principal drug of concern:<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<li data-mce-word-list=\"1\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><em>the most common sources of referral were health service (30%), followed by self\/family (28%)<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<li data-mce-word-list=\"1\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><em>1 in 5 (8,497) treatment episodes where cannabis was the principal drug of concern were for clients whose referral was from a police or court diversion (Table SD.37)<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<li data-mce-word-list=\"1\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><em>about 1 in 9 (14,447) of all clients receiving treatment for their own drug use, had a diversion referral and were more likely to be treated for cannabis (54%) as a principal drug of concern; with 21% of diversion clients also receiving non-diversion referrals to treatment for cannabis as a principal drug of concern (Figure CANNABIS3; Table SE.27)<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<li data-mce-word-list=\"1\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><em>this was followed by amphetamines (15% referrals from diversion compared with 39% from non-diversion), alcohol (11% diversion compared with 16% non-diversion) and heroin (less than 1% diversion compared with 5% non-diversion) (Figure CANNABIS3; Table SE.27) .&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aihw.gov.au\/reports\/alcohol-other-drug-treatment-services\/alcohol-other-drug-treatment-services-australia\/contents\/drugs-of-concern\/cannabis\">AIHW Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Services Report \u2013 Cannabis <\/a>&nbsp;<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-2940\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Picture2.png\" alt=\"Picture2\" width=\"756\" height=\"700\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Picture2.png 728w, https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Picture2-300x278.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 756px) 100vw, 756px\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Now, rather than go into reams of data in a limited Blog space, we just want to ask some important questions or not only you, the reader, but the Guardians of our community. Questions that require more than a dismissive shrug or ubiquitous Harm Reduction based avoidance meme.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Why has there been such and increase in the demand for treatment of Cannabis Use Disorder?<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Who ultimately <\/strong>(besides the cannabis using individual)<strong> bears the brunt of the financial cost of this \u2018recreational\u2019 and illegal activity?<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>What are some of the key drivers for this increasing demand, and therefore, use of this drug?<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">There are other questions, we could pose, but the last one, we will give a part answer to \u2013 an answer we encourage you to investigate further.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Will this concerning culture, economic and health diminishing activity and it\u2019s attending harms increase or decrease with greater permission?<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The short answer to that is, <em>undoubtedly<\/em> \u2013 We have seen a gradual but recently accelerating mode of de facto decriminalisation around \u2018recreational\u2019 cannabis use; with less and less action by law enforcement on use, the relentless propaganda around \u2018medicinal\u2019 pot and the ever-increasing push of pro-drug advocates in the policy space to normalise drug use. &nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">And, of course, the legislative \u2018noise\u2019 of tacit promotion that certain parliamentarians make, touting the idea of legalisation. Add to that a heavily manipulated and sycophantic pro-drug social media culture and you have an emboldened drug using demographic gaining \u2018social\u2019 clout and driving, if ever so surreptitiously, a faux cultural sentiment of \u2018approval\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">We wrote on these <em>Permission Models<\/em> in our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/permission-still-the-greatest-drug-pushing-protocol-in-play\/\">last blog post<\/a> and we\u2019ll talk more to this in our next one \u2013 Looking at the Victorian <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.parliament.vic.gov.au\/lsic-lc\/article\/4264\">Parliamentary Inquiry into the Use of Cannabis in Victoria<\/a>. <\/em>Until then\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><em><strong>Communications Team @ Dalgarno Institute<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to recent report released by the Australian Institute of Health &amp; Welfare, cannabis use disorders and treatment for such is increasing. And as the following data reveals, the demographic experiencing the most harm is the under 30 yr. cohort. Before reading the following excerpt from this report, it is important to note a couple [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2939,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-next-phase-platform"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}