Victorian Drug Trends

The Drugs Trends Program includes the Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS) and the Ecstasy and Related Drugs Reporting System (EDRS). These are ongoing national surveillance systems designed to monitor trends in drug use and harms among key sentinel groups of people who use drugs; people who inject drugs (IDRS) an people who use ecstasy or other stimulants (EDRS).

Objective

Determine patterns of drug use and harms in sentinel samples of people who use drugs.

Timeline

2000–ongoing.

Approach

The Drug Trends projects involve annual surveys with samples of people who use drugs recruited from contacts with services or other means such as social media. We also collect secondary data on illicit drug use captured through routine databases such as hospitalisation databases.

Community impact

The Drug Trends program is one of the key sources of illicit drug use patterns and trends in Australia. It has played a major role in understanding the impacts of drug use and informing ongoing debate in the community about how best to respond to these.