Description

This document, prepared by influential Aboriginal lawyer Noel Pearson, provides his analysis of the alcohol and drug problems being experienced in Far North Queensland, with the aim of informing strategy to address the crisis. He argues that the prevailing ‘symptom theory’ which justifies the severe substance abuse in Aboriginal communities as being caused by the underlying issues of dispossession, racism and trauma, is based on an incorrect understanding of addiction epidemics and therefore causes confusion in relation to how substance abuse should be tackled. Rather, he states that while Aboriginal people are highly susceptible to alcohol and drug abuse as a consequence of personal and family history and background, substance abuse epidemics have their own dynamics including cash, spare time, the substance being available, the example of others, and a permissive social ideology, indicating that addiction is a condition in its own right, not a symptom. It is these issues that need to be understood in order to make a difference.