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.
Partners
Funding partners
Australian Government Department of Health through the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW
Collaborators
- National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW
- National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University
- University of Tasmania
- Institute for Social Sciences Research,University of Queensland
Project contacts
Professor Paul Dietze
Program Director, Disease Elimination; Professor and Program Leader, National Drug Research Institute (NDRI)
Project team
Professor Paul Dietze
Program Director, Disease Elimination; Professor and Program Leader, National Drug Research Institute (NDRI)
Associate Professor Paul Agius
Honorary Principal Research Fellow
Associate Professor Peter Higgs
Principal Research Fellow; Honorary Associate Professor, Department of Public Health, La Trobe University
Rebekka (Bek) Petrovic
Research Assistant
Bianca Whiteside
PhD candidate; Research Assistant
