Julian Simmonds (Ryan, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Worryingly, the amount of illicit drugs being consumed in Australia continues to increase and continues to have significant impacts on Australians' health and economic outcomes. Recently the committee I chair, the Joint Committee on Law Enforcement, completed an inquiry into public communication campaigns targeting drug abuse. Serious harms are caused by organised criminal elements that traffic illicit drugs, and these harms are felt right throughout our community and by individual drug users. The inquiry found that a confronting public awareness campaign is effective to educate and decrease overall drug use and harm. We found that, to maximise that effectiveness, you need to tackle these campaigns from both the health and law enforcement angles and increase the awareness of the consequences for anyone who chooses to take illicit drugs.

So I'm delighted that, since the inquiry, the AFP have launched a social media campaign—they launched it on Halloween—highlighting the real horror of illicit drugs, including cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin. Unlike previous campaigns, this targeted approach has sought to challenge the perceptions that some of these drugs, like cocaine, are harmless. It shows the lesser-known health dangers of chronic cocaine use such as lowering the sperm count amongst males. The Have a Conscience campaign also outlines how Australian drug users could be unknowingly bankrolling serious overseas crime. I highly commend the exceptional work done by the AFP on this campaign and encourage Australians, if they haven't already, to share this important public awareness campaign so that, together as a community, we can decrease illicit drug use.