NT trends in ecstasy and related drug markets 2011 : findings from the Ecstasy and Related Drugs Reporting System (EDRS)
NT trends in ecstasy and related drug markets; Reports; PublicationNT
2011
Made available via the Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004 (NT).
Date:2011; Australian drug trends series No. 80
English
Drug abuse surveys -- Northern Territory -- Periodicals; Ecstasy (Drug) -- Northern Territory -- Periodicals; Drug abuse -- Northern Territory -- Periodicals
National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales
Sydney (N.S.W)
9780733430206
Check within Publication or with content Publisher.
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/242182
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/610318
2 2 METHOD The methodology for the IDRS was trialled during 1996 and 1997, initially in Sydney and then in other states (Hando et al., 1997). The methodology (described in the following section) was partially used in every state and territory in 1999, and since 2000 has been fully applied in each state and territory on an annual basis. The IDRS uses three types of data, which are described below. 2.1 Survey of people who inject drugs (PWID) Face-to-face structured interviews are conducted in the capital city of each state and territory, ideally with a minimum of 100 people who regularly inject drugs. To participate in the study, people must have injected drugs at least once a month during the past six months, and have lived in the relevant capital city for at least the past 12 months. Regular PWID are selected for their first-hand knowledge and ability to comment on the price, purity, availability and use of illicit drugs in the city in which they live. This group is treated as a sentinel group that is likely to reflect emerging trends. In this report, this group is referred to variously as participants or respondents. As in previous years, each state and territory used a standardised interview schedule. The schedule closely followed the one used in previous years, requesting information about the interviewees demographics and drug use, and about the price, purity and availability of the four main categories of drugs under investigation. Questions were also asked about treatment, crime, risk behaviours and health. Overall ethical approval for the study was granted by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of New South Wales, and jurisdictionally for the NT by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the NT DHCS and Menzies School of Health Research. In the NT, interviews were conducted in Darwin and Palmerston during July 2011 with 98 people meeting the criteria mentioned above. Participants were recruited through fliers posted at the Needle and Syringe Programs (NSP) and through word of mouth. The interviews were conducted by trained interviewers. Interviews were conducted at the Darwin and Palmerston NSP. The participants who met the inclusion criteria were given an information sheet that described the content of the interview. It was explained that the information they provided was entirely confidential and that they were free to withdraw from the survey without prejudice or to decline to answer any questions they chose. Interviews generally lasted about 60 minutes and participants were reimbursed $40 for their time. Data analysis was conducted using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows Version 19.0.