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THE Australian Bureau of Statistics has just released their 2016 Causes of Death report. The alarming point for me is the 1,808 lives we lost due to drugs – which is at a 20 year high. Drug overdoses brings with it the image of an addict shooting heroin into their veins with a needle. In 1999 this profile was accurate when the drug user dying was a person in their early 30s.

Move forward to 2016 and nothing could be more different. Typically now a drug-related death is likely to occur to a middle-aged male, living outside a capital city, misusing prescription drugs, with an accidental death. This tells me that we need comprehensive drug education at all levels, not just with our kids.

Drugs and their effects need to be talked about at schools, in the home and in the workplace. With so many prescription drugs on the market we must educate people on their effects and highly addictive nature. Everyone knows about heroin, LSD and marijuana. But what about ‘legal’ prescription drugs such as benzodiazepines and highly addictive painkillers such as Oxycodone, codeine and Endone? These drugs can turn the average trusting person into an unwitting drug addict, locked in a vicious spiral of pain.

The Drug Free Ambassadors Australia educates on a wide spectrum of drugs and we want to let everyone know that we have excellent tools that can be used by anyone to educate their families and loved ones.

For those already in the grip of some form of prescription drug addiction, there are medical professionals who specialise in helping people come off as these drugs requires proper medical supervision to withdraw from.

For free materials email me at info@drugfreeamabssadors.org.au or go online to www.drugfreeworld.org.

JUDEE O’LEARY QUEENSLAND COORDINATOR, DRUG FREE AMBASSADORS AUSTRALIA

AS Australia approaches summer and bushfire season, I encourage all to support the Fire Fighters because we do have the best and most experienced firefighter in the world.

I know of no other country that has such an enhanced voluntary community, the rural and Bush firefighters, State Emergency Services, Coast Guard, and others like the Surf Life Saver that put so much time into training and on the job.

The USA does not have these folk, so when California and other states burn, authorities cannot control and extinguish the fire.

I dips me lid to all volunteers!

ROBERT S BUICK, MOUNTAIN CREEK

ALL the fuss and ado about Harvey Weinstein. Unfortunately this was common behaviour for many years. Any woman older than midfifties would have been subjected to this behaviour daily, at work and socially. Less than 10 years ago I worked in a company with a boss who daily groped the younger female staff.

QUEENIE, GOLD COAST