NEWS BRIEFING: Aussie drug trends - young people shift to purer forms of stimulants, cocaine use highest recorded

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2018-10-08 00:05

Australia; NSW

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*BRIEFING RECORDING NOW AVAILABLE* A shift towards higher purity types of ecstasy and crystal methamphetamine, and cocaine use at the highest level yet recorded, are among the findings of the latest Drug Trends Reports from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) at UNSW Sydney. And psychostimulants are having some worrying effects on the health of young users; one-in-five of 280 fatal strokes among young adults in Australia that happened between 2009-2016 were users. Strokes are rare in the young, but the average age of these psychostimulant users was just 37 years. So how are Australian police dealing with the problem? Research shows that, compared with 25 other countries around the world, Australians are among the most likely to encounter drug detection dogs, but not among the most likely to be stopped and searched. Join us for this online briefing ahead of the 2018 NDARC Annual Research Symposium, to hear from the experts behind the research.