The Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) has released new figures showing the rate of methamphetamine use while in police detention is currently the highest ever recorded in Australia.
The AIC’s Report, Drug Use Monitoring in Australia: Drug use among police detainees, 2018, revealed that 52 per cent of detainees tested positive to methamphetamine – the highest level in more than 20 years.
Director of the AIC, Michael Phelan said the Drug Use Monitoring in Australia (DUMA) program was the nation’s largest and longest-running ongoing survey of police detainees across the country, as well as the only survey of its kind conducted on a routine basis.
“DUMA is an invaluable tool to inform policy and programs about local drug markets as police detainees are more likely than the general community or incarcerated offenders to have had recent and close contact with the illicit drug market,” Mr Phelan said.
He said the 2018 data indicated that the price of methamphetamine was either remaining the same or becoming less expensive, sparking a spike in usage, with 80 per cent of detainees surveyed reporting methamphetamine as being “widely available” in communities.
The AIC report was based on the analysis of data collected between January and December 2018.
Mr Phelan said 2,418 adult detainees were tested at five police stations and watch houses in Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth, and Bankstown and Surry Hills in NSW.
The survey also revealed that 25 per cent of detainees said methamphetamine was the reason they had been arrested.
The Commission’s 45-page report can be downloaded from this PS News link.
