Impacts-of-methamphetamine-in-Victoria-Community-Assessment-Penington-Institute

Recommendations

Info

Victoria accounted for the greatest number of ATS arrests (an increase of 50.5 per cent), closelyfollowed by New South Wales and Queensland (see Table 5). Note that this increase was on top of a45 per cent increase reported in the previous reporting period [76].Table 5: Number and percentage change of national ATS arrests, 2010–11 and2011–12. Source Australian Crime Commission 2014ArrestsState/Territory ab 2011–12 2012-13 % changeNew South Wales 4451 5 905 32.7Victoria 4494 6 762 50.5Queensland 4188 4 941 18South Australia 1049 1 312 25.1Western Australia 2347 2 870 22.3Tasmania 161 125 -22.4Northern Territory 14 169 1 107.1Australian Capital Territory 124 105 -15.3Total 16,828 22 189 31.9a. The term amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) encompasses drugs included under both the amphetaminesand phenethylamines groupings. For further details see the Statistics chapter.b. The arrest data for each state and territory include Australian Federal Police dataThe above data show significant increase in detection and arrests for methamphetamine in 2011-2012 and 2012-2013.Victoria Police Crime Statistics (2013)Victoria Police’s crime statistics include reports of (unspecified) drug offences by Local GovernmentArea (LGA) and Police Service Area (PSA) and state-wide reports of specific drug offences.Throughout the media, there have been statements issues by spokespeople for the Victoria Police,which link a number of assaults and armed robberies to methamphetamine. For example:“Police figures show that... there were 3218 amphetamine-related assaults and 3990burglaries” 3“Police said in at least 12 murders committed or tried by courts over the past two years,crystal methamphetamine was used by the killer or was otherwise a suspected factor inthe crime” 4Updated in December 2013, but not disaggregated by LGA or PSA, Victoria Police Crime Statisticsshow that in Victoria during the 2012/2013 period, there were 1335 cases of “traffickmethylamphetamine” recorded. 5 This represents a 90.2 per cent increase over 2011/2012 when therewere 702 such cases. In 2010/2011 there were 448 cases of “trafficking methylamphetamine”.3 http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/crystal-meth-linked-to-violent-crime/story-fni0ffnk-12267069891454 http://www.news.com.au/national/deadlier-than-ever-welcome-to-the-new-ice-age/story-fncynjr2-12267586636815 Methylamphetamine is the term used in this dataset.24
With regards possession of methylamphetamine offences, there were 1176 such recorded offences in2012/2013, compared with 491 in 2011/2012. This was a 139.5 per cent increase. Furthermore, the2012/2013 statistics compare with 147 cases of possession in 2010/2011 [79].By comparison, statistics relating to “trafficking amphetamine” in the period 2010/2011 to 2012/2013show the following: 407, 365, 324. This reveals a small decline in the number of amphetaminetrafficking cases recorded, but a large increase in the number of methylamphetamine traffickingcases. This directly overlaps with the period in which reports of increased methamphetamine use inVictoria began, and has continued to occur.These figures provide an indicator of what contributes to increased availability, and of course,increased police attention to the methamphetamine supply.Table 6 shows methylamphetamine and amphetamine trafficking and possession cases in Victoriaover a decade.2,500Methylamphetamine and amphetamine offencesSource: Victoria Police, "Offences recorded by offence category, offence code,description and statutory reference 2003/04 - 2012/132,0001,5001,00050002003/04 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13T raffick methylamphetaminePossess amphetaminePossess methylamphetamineT raffick amphetamineTable 6: Victorian methylamphetamine and amphetamine offences.Detainee testing including at Footscray Police StationAnother source of relevant data is the Drug Use Monitoring in Australia (DUMA) program. DUMAcollects information on results of drug tests among people detained by police at nine police stations inAustralia, including Footscray which is the only Victorian site in the survey. In 2009-2010, nationallyDUMA recorded its lowest level of methamphetamine use (15 per cent) since the program’s inceptionin 1999 [80].However, with regards to results from the Footscray police station samples, it was noted that: “themain exception to this [national trend] was a substantial increase in the detection ofmethamphetamine, which rose by 15 percentage points in 2010 (up to 26 per cent)” [80].Prison populationIn Victoria, in 2013 the overall prison population increased nine per cent (456 prisoners) to 5340 (asat the prison census). The (crude) imprisonment rate increased from 112 per 100,000 to 120 per100,000 in 2013. The next estimate of numbers will not occur until later this year, but it is known that25
Page 1 and 2: IMPACTS OF METHAMPHETAMINEIN VICTOR
Page 4 and 5: CONTENTSACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 61. EXECUT
Page 6 and 7: AcknowledgementsPenington Institute
Page 8 and 9: communications interventions. Local
Page 10 and 11: 3. IntroductionMethamphetamine is a
Page 12 and 13: Component Four: In-depth interviews
Page 14 and 15: That ABS analysis looked at 2010. I
Page 16 and 17: attribute poor health status to the
Page 18 and 19: Family relationshipsMethamphetamine
Page 20 and 21: Development of coalitions of suppor
Page 22 and 23: Table 2: Annual median purity of me
Page 26 and 27: methamphetamine-related offences ha
Page 28 and 29: 6.2.5. Data from Ambulance Victoria
Page 30 and 31: Table 8: Ambo Project summary of ca
Page 32 and 33: A homelessness worker in the Hume r
Page 34 and 35: Methamphetamine becoming cheaper:Al
Page 36 and 37: Compared with other substances, a n
Page 38 and 39: Many people noted that methamphetam
Page 40 and 41: “Indigenous communities are hard
Page 42 and 43: Services noted that methamphetamine
Page 44 and 45: An AOD worker noted that, in relati
Page 46 and 47: drug and alcohol stuff and the depr
Page 48 and 49: Police7.7. Impacts on service syste
Page 50 and 51: A leading addiction specialist base
Page 52 and 53: Services noted that it was often ha
Page 54 and 55: One of the respondents said he gene
Page 56 and 57: For both young men it was the escal
Page 58 and 59: Deciding to seek helpFor both Xavie
Page 60 and 61: 8. Drug testing populations: Waste
Page 62 and 63: Table 10: Number of doses consumed
Page 64 and 65: provision of wrap around services b
Page 66 and 67: 17. Australian Institute of Health
Page 68 and 69: 52. McKetin R, Lubman D, Lee N, Ros
Page 70 and 71: 87. Iversen J, Chow S, Maher L. Aus

Impacts-of-methamphetamine-in-Victoria-Community-Assessment-Penington-Institute

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?