REPORT SHOWS SIGNIFCANT DECLINES IN DETAINEE DRUG USE
18 February 2010
The Australian Institute of Criminology’s (AIC) annual Drug Use Monitoring in Australia (DUMA) report has revealed a significant decline in the use of methamphetamines and other illicit drug types among police detainees.
After five years of significant levels, methamphetamine use fell in 2008 by five percentage points from the previous year to the lowest level recorded since 1999, with 21 percent of detainees testing positive for the drug.
Cannabis and heroin use also showed downward trends. The rate of heroin use was 70 percent lower than when it peaked prior to the heroin shortage in 2000, while cannabis, the most commonly detected drug, was at its lowest point of detection in 11 years.
Cocaine and ecstasy use remained consistently low, at one and three percent respectively.
Introduced in 1999, DUMA involves police detainees at nine sites around the country providing a urine sample and completing a voluntary questionnaire about their drug use.
It provides law enforcement authorities and policy makers with valuable data on drug use, treatment and market participation, and the relationship between drug use and crime.
In 2008, 44 percent of adult detainees reported that they had taken drugs prior to committing at least one of the offences for which they were charged.
Violent offences were most prevalent among male detainees (28%), while property offences were most prevalent among female detainees (36%). Forty-two percent of adult detainees who tested positive attributed at least some of their offending to their drug use.
The 2008 DUMA report contains a new section on inhalants, which shows that their use is not just a problem for remote Indigenous populations and that at some metropolitan sites, up to 17 percent of those surveyed had tried them.
The report continues to show a considerable overlap between the heavy use of alcohol and illicit drug use. Three-quarters of male detainees and two-thirds of female detainees self-reported at least one episode of heavy alcohol use during the past year and the percentage of detainees dependent on alcohol increased from 32 to 34 percent between 2007 and 2008.
To view the paper visit www.aic.gov.au
Contact: Brian Humphreys 0438 595 567
AIC contact: Caterina Giugovaz 0418 221 798.
