Social Policy Research Centre
Public opinion and drug policy: engaging the ‘affected community’
Published on the 21 May 2026
This project explored the attitudes and opinions of people who use drugs towards drug policy in Australia. Public opinion can play an important role in determining policy and informing political processes. However, the majority of public opinion data regarding attitudes to drug policy in Australia is collected at the broader population level, and the voices of people who use illicit drugs have traditionally been marginalised within policy debate and remain under-explored. The ‘affected community’ notion suggests that policy should be informed by the people it most directly affects – however we do not know, for example, if people who use drugs have similar or different views to the broader population about fundamental drug policy questions such as the role of needle-syringe programs, treatment and drug legalisation. This stymies opportunities for policy-making to be informed by those it most directly affects.
Research Centre
Research Area
Drug Policy Modelling Program
- Years
- Publications
- Funding agency
- Collaborators
2011 to 2014
Journal articles: Lancaster, K., Santana, L., Madden, A., & Ritter, A. (2014, in press). Stigma and subjectivities: Examining the textured relationship between lived experience and opinions about drug policy among people who inject drugs. Drugs: Education Prevention & Policy, https://doi.org/10.3109/09687637.2014.970516 Lancaster, K., Sutherland, R. and Ritter, A. (2014) Examining the opinions of people who use drugs towards drug policy in Australia, Drugs: education, prevention and policy. https://doi.org/10.3109/09687637.2013.838211 Lancaster, K., Ritter, A. & Stafford, J. (2013) Public opinion and drug policy in Australia: engaging the ‘affected community’, Drug and Alcohol Review. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1465-3362.2012.00497.x Presentations: Lancaster, K., Ritter, A., Santana, L. and Madden, A. (2013, December) Public opinion and drug policy: engaging the ‘affected community’. Paper presented at the 11th Dangerous Consumptions Colloquium, 12-13 December, Sydney. Lancaster, K. (2013, October) Examining the opinions of people who use drugs towards drug policy in Australia. Invited presentation at the NSW Users and AIDS Association ‘Drug Policy and You’ Symposium, 16 October, Sydney. Lancaster, K. and Ritter, A. (2011, November). Public opinion and drug policy: engaging the ‘affected community’. Paper presented at APSAD, Hobart, Australia. 13-16 November. Lancaster, K. and Ritter, A. (2011, October). Public opinion and drug policy: engaging the ‘affected community’. DPMP Team Meeting, Sydney, 13-14 October.
Colonial Foundation Trust; CREIDU
Australian Injecting & Illicit Drug Users League (AIVL)
