Illicit Drugs and Bikers in Australia

One of the major issues that involve Bikers within Australia is illicit drugs. The Australian Drug Foundation (2011 p.1) defines drugs as ‘a substance other than food which is taken to change the way the body and/or mind function’. Drugs including cannabis, ecstasy, heroin, amphetamines and cocaine are illegal therefore not regulated by the Government. Without regulation the quality of the products relies on the importer (smuggler) or cooks (amphetamines) to be pure. However there is not grantee of this. (1) The policy introduction by the current liberal Government has increased the penalties associated with the possession, use, selling and importing (1). The new penalties include fines, imprisonment and or deportation. The article states that research published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ)(cited in ), ‘the illicit drugs market is thriving despite a ramping up globally of law enforcement efforts in the so called 'war on drugs'’. With the increase pressure from the Australian Federal Government policy and no government regulation on the quality of the drugs the cost of the health of both the individual drug consumer and the community begins to add up. The economic cost to the Government for counselling and rehabilitation falls on either state or federal governments while the social impact falls upon social workers (3). A breakdown of the economic cost was study by the Australian Instituted of Criminology and there results are as followed: Death that is due to