Drug Policy Australia raises awareness of the harms to public health related to the use of drugs and alcohol and undertakes education, research and advocacy of proven harm-reduction strategies to minimise that harm. The optimum health outcome for those Australians using a psychoactive substance and their families is best achieved by legal regulation and harm reduction strategies. "We believe that legally enforced abstinence is unrealistic and counter-productive in modern Australia which has one of the highest per capita consumption rates of illicit drugs in the western world."