ATS Literature Review, Consultations & Trial - Odyssey House

Amphetamine‐Type Stimulants: Development of a Treatment Protocol
A summary of drugs ever used in Australia from 1993 to 2007 is presented in Table 1 and reports on
information from the 2007 National Household Survey of Drug Use (2008). Table 2 provides a
summary of recent drug use. Note that the reported prevalence of substance use depends on the
question that is asked. Asking whether a person has ever used a drug includes people who may have
used in the past but no longer use, as well as people who used the drug on only one or a few
occasions but did not progress to more regular use. This greatly inflates the perceived levels of drug
use. Asking whether people have used a substance in the past 12 months gives a more current
estimate of the level of use, although it still gives no indication of the amount of use.
• In 2007, 44.6% Australians aged 14 years or older had smoked at least 100 cigarettes or the
equivalent amount of tobacco in their lifetime, declining from the proportion in 2004 (47.1%).
• In 2007, nine out of every ten (89.9%) people had consumed a full serve of alcohol in their
lifetime.
• Marijuana/cannabis had been used at least once by one‐third of Australians aged 14years or
older in 2007 (33.5%).
• Over one‐third of the population of Australians aged 14 years or older had ever used any illicit
drug (38.1%) in 2007.
It can be seen that in 2007 the overall drug use figures have changed, in some cases quite
dramatically. Alcohol and tobacco remain the drugs most commonly ever used by the Australian
community. There has been a significant decrease in both tobacco use (44.6%) and, very
interestingly, alcohol (89.9%), although these drugs remain the most highly consumed by the
Australian population. With the exception of marijuana/cannabis (33.5%), the proportion of the
population who had used illicit drugs at some time in their life was relatively low. As noted
previously, the use of meth/amphetamine has dropped significantly over the period between the
two national household surveys, from 2004 to 2007. The illicit drugs which have seen increased use
are inhalants, cocaine and ecstasy, together with the use non‐prescribed tranquillisers and sleeping
pills. All these are at a statistically significant level.
Figure 2 provides information on use by State and Territory from 2000‐2005. Highest use at this
reporting period was reported in Western Australia, followed by ACT and Tasmania.
Figure 2. Proportion of IDU reporting recent use of crystalline methamphetamine, by
jurisdiction, 2000‐2005 (Stafford, Degenhardt, Black, Bruno et. al., 2006)
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