Drugs of concern

In 2017–18, for clients receiving treatment episodes for their own drug use:

  • alcohol was the most common principal drug of concern (38% of episodes) for clients in New South Wales (Figure 2; SE NSW.10)
  • amphetamines as a principal drug of concern accounted for over one-quarter of episodes (27%), followed by cannabis (16%), and heroin (8%). This is consistent with the national picture (Table SD.1).

Clients can nominate up to 5 additional drugs of concern, these drugs are not necessarily the subject of any treatment within the episode (see Technical notes).

In 2017–18, when the client reported additional drugs of concern:

  • nicotine was the most common additional drug of concern (10% of episodes), followed by cannabis (9%), amphetamines (6%), and alcohol (5%) (Table SE NSW.11).

Over the period 2013–14 to 2017–18:

  • alcohol remained the most common principal drug of concern in treatment episodes provided to clients, even though the proportion of these episodes declined (from 44% to 38%)
  • amphetamines replaced cannabis in 2014–15 as the second most common principal drug of concern in New South Wales, and has increased since 2013–14 (from 17% to 27%)
  • cannabis is now the third most common principal drug of concern, decreasing from 21% to 16% in 2017–18.
  • These trends are consistent with the national picture (Table SD.2).
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