Designing a drug monitoring system for New Zealand: Experience and findings from the 2005 Illicit Dr

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Designing a drug monitoring system for New
Zealand Experience and findings from the 2005
Illicit Drug Monitoring System (IDMS)

• Dr. Chris Wilkins
• ATCA Conference 2006

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Acknowledgements

• New Zealand Needle Exchange
• Odyssey House
• Community Alcohol and Drug Services (CADS)
• Salvation Army Bridge Programme
• Higher Ground
• Alcohol Drug Association New Zealand (ADANZ)

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Background

• Late 1990s/early 2000s NZ experienced increases
  in methampetamine use
• Meth labs (19982 200141 2003202)
• Rapid emergence of meth underlined need for
  timely monitoring of drug trends
• Challenge was to develop a drug monitoring system
  suited to New Zealand
• Three year development phase agreed

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New Zealand challenges

• Modest budget/ high expectations
• Small/medium size cities (only one metropolis)
• Dispersed drug using population with little
  experience of drug research
• Methamphetamine users (aggression, paranoia)
• Existing Australian and other country systems and
  research (e.g. IDRS, PDI)

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Illicit Drug Monitoring System (IDMS)

• Triangulation between information sources (FDU,
  KE and secondary data sources)
• Triangulation between three key groups of
  frequent drug users (known as modules)
• Modules can work seperately or be combined
• 2005 three modules
• Meth Cannabis Halluc (ecstasy/LSD)

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Interview of frequent drug users

• Recruited through promotion and snowballing
• At least monthly users
• Interviewed in community settings
• Approx 1 hour interview
• 14 sections (195 possible questions)
• Paid 20 food/C.D. vouchers

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Sections of questionnaire

• Demographics
• Drug use patterns (e.g. use/means of admin)
• Price, purity, availability of 10 core drugs
• Side effects (i.e. detailed symptoms)
• Life impacts
• General trends (open question)
• Risk of use and purchase

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Combined sample of FDUs (contd)

• Crime (e.g. arrest/prison history)
• Income (i.e. legal and illegal)
• Injecting behaviour
• Sexual health
• Blood borne testing/vaccination

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Triangulation 1

• Within module

FDU (Meth)
KI (Meth)
Secondary data (Meth)
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Triangulation 2

• Between modules

FDU (Meth)
FDU (Cannabis)
FDU (Halluc)
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Between samples of FDUs

• Triangulation between three FDU samples
• Up-take of new drug by different groups of drug
  users (e.g. meth use by cannabis)
• How a traditional niche drug fits into drug use
  of main drug users (e.g. LSD use by FDUs)
• Differences in means of administration between
  different FDU (e.g. injection of methamphetamine)

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Triangulation 3

• Combined modules

FDU (all)
Secondary data
KI (all)
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Combined sample of FDUs

• Boost numbers of FDUs
• Investigate rarely used drugs (e.g. GHB,
  Ketamine)
• Investigate a potentially emerging drug (e.g.
  ecstasy, cocaine)
• Investigate issues in greater detail (e.g. age
  breakdowns of ecstasy users)

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Demographics of Frequent Drug Users
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Price of methamphetamine
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Change in price of meth
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Current availability of meth
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Change in availability of meth
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Analysis

• Quantitative measures of trends (1very difficult
  5very easy)
• Mean/median/s.d. of measures
• Statistical tests of consistency between three
  groups of FDU (use all the data)
• Statistical comparisons between drug types

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Further developments in 2006

• Larger sample size (n318)
• Drop rural sites (5 to 3 sites)
• Drop cannabis module
• Ecstasy only module
• New drugs Ritalin, Magic mushrooms

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Further developments in 2006 (Contd)

• Add Injecting drug user (IDU) module (n100)
• New section on safe injection
• New section on blood borne viruses
• Drug first injected/age first injected

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THANK YOU

• c.wilkins_at_massey.ac.nz
• www.shore.ac.nz