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
69 There continue to be a significant number of tradespersons attending treatment; A couple of clients have commented that the Opiate Pharmacotherapy Program has a punishment framework and is inflexible. Health KE 3 Referrals from the courts are usually related to speed use. Approximately 50% of clients present for alcohol misuse, 20% for cannabis, 10% for speed, 2% for opiates and 20% for polydrug use. Among polydrug users, cannabis and alcohol and cannabis and methamphetamine combination use patterns are the most common. We are still not seeing many Indigenous clients. The number of young people presenting has remained stable. There are more older clients, mainly for alcohol and cannabis misuse. There are more clients coming from the rural area. A number of clients have reported dropping out of the Opiate Pharmacotherapy Program due to limited dosing hours. A number of clients have commented on how difficult it is to locate a GP who will prescribe. Even treatment agencies have great difficulty in finding GPs willing to co-manage clients. Health KE 4 The lack of prescribing doctors is regularly reported by NSP clients. There is also a difficulty in accessing those doctors willing to prescribe opiates. Health KE 5 Some doctors are leaving their patients in the lurch (ceasing to prescribe). The Opiate Pharmacotherapy Program (OPP) waiting time to commence is too long. The level of detail in the OPP assessment is unnecessary and intrusive. The two hour OPP dosing period is too short, especially as clients need to catch three buses from Palmerston. It is a minimum of two weeks before OPP clients can start community dosing and this is unsuitable for those clients with employment. OPP clients comment that the program is too hard, too punitive, especially the three day stand-down which occurs for very minor infractions. Health KE 6 The client profile is generally the same although there are slightly more women than in previous years. Indigenous clients still represent a small proportion of the overall client population and are under-represented on the OPP. There is a regular flow of clients unable to find a prescribing doctor.