Alcohol and other drug treatment services in Australia annual report 2023–24

People may receive alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment services for use of one or more substances. The principal drug of concern (PDOC) is the main substance that the client stated led them to receive treatment. Clients can also nominate up to 5 additional drugs of concern, though these are not necessarily the subject of any treatment within the episode.

This section presents information on treatment episodes provided to clients for their own AOD use only. It is assumed that only the person using a substance themselves can accurately report their principal drug of concern. Therefore, these data are not collected for people who received treatment for someone else’s drug use.

This section focuses on treatment episodes provided for alcohol, amphetamines, cannabis and heroin as the PDOC. These 4 drugs were consistently the most common principal drugs of concern across Australia in the 10-year period up to 2023–24. For detailed information on each drug of concern, refer to the technical notes.

Drugs of concern and treatment provided

In 2023–24, 219,277 (91%) treatment episodes were provided to 122,582 clients for their own AOD use (Table OV.1).

Among these episodes:

• The most common principal drugs of concern were alcohol (42%), amphetamines (26%), cannabis (16%) and heroin (4.3%) (Table Drg.1).
• Over one quarter of treatment episodes (27%) reported at least 1 additional drug of concern.
  • The number of additional drugs reported was most commonly one drug (18%) or 2 drugs (6.2%).
  • Cannabis (11%), nicotine (8.6%), alcohol (6.2%) and amphetamines (6.1%) were the most common additional drugs of concern (tables Drg.1, Drg.2, Drg.3).
• For the 4 most common principal drugs of concern, the most common treatment setting was non-residential treatment facilities (ranging from 63% to 73%) (Table Drg.8).

In the 10 years to 2023–24, the number of clients who received treatment for their own AOD use increased from 108,518 to 122,582, while the total number of treatment episodes increased from 162,303 to 219,277 (Table OV.1).

Among these episodes across the 10 years to 2023–24:

• Alcohol remained the most common principal drug of concern each year, and treatment episodes increased by 49% over this period (from 61,504 to 91,361).

• The proportion of treatment episodes for alcohol in relation to all other drugs of concern fluctuated, falling from 38% in 2014–15 to 32% in 2015–16, before rising to 42% in 2022–23.
• Treatment episodes for amphetamines as a principal drug of concern almost doubled since 2014–15 (32,407 to 57,791), although this has declined since a peak in 2019–20 (60,987).
  • 4 in 5 (82%) episodes for amphetamines were for methamphetamine as the principal drug of concern, with increases across this period likely due to both data quality improvements in reporting of methamphetamine and increases in treatment episodes (from 11,963 to 47,411).  
• Treatment episodes for heroin as the principal drug of concern fell from 6.1% to 4.3% (9,908 to 9,406).
• Treatment episodes for cannabis fluctuated, from 39,363 in 2014–15, peaking at 45,043 in 2015–16 and falling to 34,248 (16% of all episodes) in 2023–24.
• In relation to all other drugs of concern, cannabis treatment episodes were most prominent in 2014–15 when they constituted 24% of all episodes (Table Drg.5).

Fluctuations in certain principal drug treatment episodes in particular years may be due to administrative anomalies in the data. For example, the drop in all treatment episodes in the 2016–17 collection year may be partly related to state system changes resulting in under-reporting or partial reporting of the number of episodes in some jurisdictions (See the Data quality statement for further details).

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