|
|
| Scottish and other GB Regional Drug Misuse Databases |
- Information on new attenders at drug services reported
to the Scottish Drug Misuse Database for the period 1998/99 continues
to show that the most common age group, accounting for nearly one third
of individuals (31 per cent), is 20-24 years; the 25-29 age group accounts
for a further 26 per cent.
|
ISD Scotland
chart 3 |
- Fourteen per cent reported that they were under 15 years
of age when their drug use became a problem.
|
ISD Scotland
chart 9 |
- Sixty-three per cent of individuals seen at services
in Scotland reported use of heroin as their main or secondary drug in
1998/99 compared to 59 per cent in 1996/97 and around 45 per cent in
the mid 1990s.
|
ISD Scotland
chart 15 |
- Figures for Great Britain as a whole show that 63 per
cent of new attenders at drug services were using heroin (either as
a main or other drug) in the six months ending 30 September 1998 (the
figure for Scotland was 62 per cent in the same six month period).
|
DH, London
table 48 |
- Reports of temazepam use have declined sharply since
prescribing restrictions were introduced in 1995. In 1998/99, 14 per
cent of individuals reported any use of temazepam (i.e. prescribed or
non-prescribed) compared with around 40 per cent in the early to mid
1990s.
|
ISD Scotland
chart 15 |
- In 1998/99, 42 per cent of individuals seen at services
reported that they had injected in the previous month. This continues
the increase of the previous three years (33 per cent, 35 per cent and
38 per cent).
|
ISD Scotland
chart 16 |
- Forty-four per cent of those who had injected in the
previous month reported that they began injecting drugs in their mid
to late teens.
|
ISD Scotland
chart 18 |
- Injecting is the main route of use recorded in the majority
of reports where heroin is mentioned - 54 per cent of heroin reports
stated that the drug was injected.
|
ISD Scotland
table 26 |
- Figures for Great Britain show that for the six month
period ending 30 September 1998, 57 per cent of those reporting heroin
said that they injected - compared to a Scotland figure of 62 per cent
for the same time period.
|
DH London
table 48 |
- In 1998/99, of the individuals who had injected in the
previous month, 32 per cent reported that they had shared their injecting
equipment in the previous month, a slight increase from previous years.
|
ISD Scotland
chart 20 |
| Information from hospitals |
- In 1998/99, the largest group of general acute hospital
admissions for drug misuse related to opioid use. In some 42 per cent
of all general acute hospital admissions for drug misuse opiods are
specifically identified but the true figure may be even higher as some
of the patients recorded as ‘multiple/other psychoactive substances’
may use opioids.
|
ISD Scotland
table 50 |
- In 1998/99, of a total of 51,820 maternities (pregnancies
which result in a live or stillbirth), there were 193 cases where the
mother was recorded as a misuser of drugs. Drug misuse is believed to
be under-recorded and this figure will be a underestimate.
|
ISD Scotland
table 59 |
| Information from general practice |
- Information from a sample of general practices shows
that a higher proportion of patients diagnosed as drug misusers were
also diagnosed with depression and anxiety than patients not diagnosed
as drug misusers.
|
ISD Scotland
chart 21 |
- Drug misusing males are more likely to have been diagnosed
for alcohol problems (11 per cent) than males attending with no drug
misuse diagnosis (2 per cent).
|
ISD Scotland
table 64
|
| HIV, AIDS, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C infection |
- Reports of HIV infection among injecting drug users continue
to increase. As of 31 December 1998, there were 1210 reports of HIV
infection as a result of injecting drug use. Injecting drug users made
up 42 per cent of all HIV infected reports.
|
SCIEH
table 66 |
- A large proportion of infected injectors are discovering
they are HIV positive at a late stage of their HIV disease progression.
|
SCIEH
table 73 |
- During 1998, 295 cases of Hepatitis B infection were
reported to SCIEH. This figure compares with 215, 191 and 153 for the
previous three years. The increase in 1998 is attributed almost entirely
to large numbers of cases which were detected in Argyll and Clyde (68)
and Grampian Health Boards (57).
|
SCIEH
chapter 8 |
- A total of 6367 cases of Hepatitis C positivity were
known as of December 31 1997; 82 per cent of these were aged between
15 and 44, 10 per cent were aged between 45 and 69 and 3 per cent were
aged 70 or over.
|
SCIEH
table 76 |
- As at 31 December 1997, approximately 1 in 800 of Scotland’s
population was known to be Hepatitis C antibody positive. It is likely
that the number of unknown cases exceeds the number of known cases several-fold.
|
SCIEH
chapter 8 |
| Prescription statistics |
- The rate of prescribing methadone mixture has increased
steadily over the last four years. In 1998/99, there were 39 prescriptions
of methadone mixture per 1000 population; this compares to 24 prescriptions
per 1000 population in 1995/96.
|
ISD Scotland
table 79 |
- Eighty-five per cent of the total number of methadone
prescriptions dispensed in 1998/99 were dispensed in instalments (e.g.
in daily doses). Daily dispensing was introduced to combat non-prescribed
use of methadone.
|
ISD Scotland
table 80 |
| Seizures and offences |
- Between 1996 and 1997, there was an 18 per cent increase
in seizures of controlled drugs by police forces in Scotland. Strathclyde
police force were responsible for 57 per cent of all seizures made by
police forces in Scotland in 1997.
|
Home office
table 82 |
- In 1998, there were a total of 31460 drugs- related offences
recorded by Scottish police forces. This compares with 29386 in 1997,
an increase of 7.1 per cent.
|
SEJD
table 85 |
- In 1997, 7005 people were convicted in Scottish courts
of drug offences (i.e. where ‘main offence’). Of these, 5384 (76.9 per
cent) were charged with ‘possession’, 1490 (21.3 per cent) ‘possession
with intent to supply’ and (1.9 per cent) ‘other’.
|
SEJD
table 87 |
| Drug misuse in Scottish prisons |
- In the 1998 Scottish Prison Survey, 44 per cent of prisoners
reported that they had used drugs at some point during the previous
six months in prison.
|
SPS
chapter 12 |
- Each month, 10 per cent of the population in each prison
in Scotland is randomly selected for a urine drug test. In 1998/99,
25 per cent of all tests gave a positive result, compared with 29 per
cent the previous year. Comparable figures based on the underlying rate
(excluding those who may have used the drugs for which they tested positive
before entry to prison) were 18 per cent and 23 per cent respectively.
|
SPS
chapter 12 |
| Drug-related deaths in Scotland |
- The total number of drug-related deaths has risen slightly
between 1997 and 1998 - from 263 to 276. As in previous years, the majority
of drug-related deaths (88 per cent) were of those persons aged under
45, with over a half aged between 25 and 44 and a third aged under 25.
|
GRO, Scotland
tables 96 & 98 |
- Heroin/morphine was involved in 41 per cent of the deaths
analysed in this report. Diazepam was involved in 38 per cent of the
deaths and methadone was involved in 23 per cent.
|
GRO, Scotland
table 99 |
| Drug education and the management of drug misuse in Scottish
schools |
- In the academic year 1998/99, almost all secondary schools
in a sample of schools inspected by HMI (90 per cent) provided drug
education for each pupil, but only some 68 per cent of primary schools
did so. Most secondary schools had policies on managing incidents of
drug misuse, whereas about 42 per cent of primary schools still relied
on arrangements which HMI regarded as insecure and/or informal.
|
HMI, Executive
table 100 |
| National schools survey |
- About two fifths, 41 per cent, of pupils had been offered
at least one of a list of illegal drugs. The likelihood of being offered
drugs increased with age: 21 per cent of 12 year olds had been offered
drugs, compared with 68 per cent of 15 year olds. Boys were more likely
to have been offered them than were girls (44 per cent compared with
38 per cent).
|
ONS
chapter 15 |
- Although 41 per cent of pupils had been offered drugs,
a much smaller proportion (18 per cent) had ever used drugs; of these,
just over half (10 per cent of all pupils) had done so in the last month.
|
ONS
chapter 15 |
- When the different combinations of smoking and drinking
behaviour are considered, the association is striking. Virtually no
children who had never smoked or drunk alcohol had ever used drugs,
but as many as 78 per cent of regular smokers who drank at least once
a week had done so.
|
ONS
chapter 15 |