The Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS)
NDARC Staff
Lucy Burns, Natasha Sindicich, Jennifer Stafford, Benjamin Phillips, Joanne Cassar and Richard Mattick
Other Investigators
Chris Moon and Tania Davidson (Department of Health and Community Services); Rosa Alati, Rebecca Rainbow (Queensland Alcohol and Drug Research and Education Centre); Robyn Vial and Nancy White (Drug and Alcohol Services SA); Raimondo Bruno and Barbara de Graaff (University of Tasmania); Danielle Horyniak (Macfarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research and Public Health); and Simon Lenton (National Drug Research Institute)
Aims
The aims of this project are:
- to monitor the price, purity, availability and patterns of use of heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and cannabis
- to identify emerging trends in illicit drug markets in Australia that require further investigation
Design and Method
The IDRS analyses three main sources of information to document drug trends:
- a quantitative survey of injecting drug users (IDU)
- a semi-structured interview with key experts (KE), who are professionals working in the illicit drug field, and have regular contact with and/or specialised knowledge of illicit drug users, dealers or manufacture
- a collation of existing indicator data on drug-related issues
Data from these three sources are triangulated against each other to determine the convergent validity of trends detected. The data sources complement each other in the nature of the information they provide. Data from each year's IDRS studies are compared to earlier findings to determine changes in drug trends over time. The strengths of the IDRS are the ability to compare data across jurisdictions as well as over time.
Progress
The IDRS is an ongoing project that is conducted annually in all Australian jurisdictions. In 2008, over 900 IDU were interviewed across Australia, providing information on their use patterns, drug markets and related issues. Key experts from a range of professions provided information on the ecstasy and related drug users they had contact with. Indicator data including Australian Customs Service seizures, purity analysis, overdose and treatment data were examined.
Output
In 2008, the annual National Drug Trends Conference was held in Sydney in November, in conjunction with the annual Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs (APSAD) conference, where a summary of jurisdictional drug trends findings was provided, in addition to a national overview and presentations on specific areas of interest arising from the data, to relevant health professionals, law enforcement, and policy makers. Throughout the year, quarterly bulletins outlining current drug trends or issues of interest were also disseminated. These bulletins are available on the
National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) website to ensure broader dissemination. Publications arising from the project during 2008 can be found on the
IDRS website
Funding
Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing