Drug use by New South Wales school students, 1983

The objectives of New South Wales surveys have been to monitor the nature and extent of alcohol and other drug use, and to provide data from which the need for social policy and educational initiatives could be determined and the effect of such initiatives evaluated. In addition, an attempt was made in 1983 to standardise the measurement procedure so that comparisons could be drawn with other major drug surveys in the United States of America (Johnston et al, 1982) and Canada (Smart et al, 1980 - see Other References below). The drugs examined in this survey were alcohol, tobacco, analgesics, solvents and aerosols, marijuana, sedatives, hallucinogens, narcotics and stimulants. The use of solvents and aerosols was included for the first time in a New South Wales survey because of widespread concern about abuse of these substances. Background variables include sex, age, year at school, main language spoken at home, and household composition.