NCJ Number
205028
Journal
Drug and Alcohol Review Volume: 23 Issue: 1 Dated: March 2004 Pages: 107-116
Date Published
March 2004
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This article discusses important population trends among heroin users in Australia for the period 1971 to 1997.
Abstract
These trends include population growth, initiation (the number that were initiated to heroin in a given year), and quitting (the number that quit using heroin). Relevant characteristics from data from the National Drug Strategy Household Survey, conducted in Australia in 1998, were summarized and extracted. A systematic procedure was devised to estimate historical trends from questions concerning past events. The results showed that the size of the heroin user population in Australia was in a sharp increase, especially from the early 1980's upwards. There was a short leveling-off period prior to 1990. Initiation was observed to be on a sharp increase. The latter trend was accompanied by a similar trend of quitting, perhaps indicating a relatively short heroin use career. A sharp decrease in both initiation and quitting was observed after 1990. The trend of the projected number of people that were initiated into heroin use peaked around the years 1977-80, 1987, and 1996-97. The trend of the projected number of people that quit the use of heroin peaked around the years 1980, 1988, and 1996-97. The trend of the projected numbers of people that were using heroin peaked around 1987 and 1997. This study demonstrates that even a static survey such as this can sometimes be used to extract historic (dynamic) trends of certain important variables. 8 figures, 4 tables, 17 references, 1 appendix