Australian National Drug Policies: Facilitating or Fragmenting Health?
Author(s)
Murray, Mary
Abstract
The paper is a study of Australia’s National Drug Policy, which depicts today’s situation against the broad background of Australia’s social history. One of the most dynamic developments towards the elaboration of a comprehensive National Drug Policy to be found in the world today is in Australia. It started some 50 years ago when the Australian governments irrespective of what party was in power, began to allocate resources for the provision of medicinal drugs to the population as a conscious social policy. The decision in the 1950s to make the supply of a limited number of life-saving drugs available free of charge to all citizens was another cornerstone in the formulation of a comprehensive policy. Another important building block was the price control mechanism established by the government. This has resulted in very low drug prices during the past few decades, at the level of 60 per cent of the EU prices. An important achievement on the part of the government has also been its success in reaching and maintaining high standard in pharmaceuticals by subsidizing access to a broad range of high-quality products and pushing less serious manufacturers to the outskirts of the market. The ongoing and productive dialogue between the pharmaceutical industry and the government is a feature worth noting on the Australian scene. All the actors in the field of the Australian drug policy participate in this dialogue which is kept very open and frank. But one important problem area has not yet been properly dealt with, namely the rational use of drugs. The author argues that more conventional approaches through ‘objective information’ and ‘therapeutic guidelines’ used alone will not be sufficient. They have to be re-examined and supplemented by creative educational program designed to meet in a flexible way the needs of different groups in society with diverse attitudes to medicines and health in general.
