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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-09-23 Daily Xml
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DRUG USE MONITORING

The Hon. R.D. LAWSON (15:18): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Leader of the Government, representing the Attorney-General, a question about drug use monitoring.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.D. LAWSON: I refer to the Drug Use Monitoring in Australia annual report, released by the federal Minister for Justice earlier this month. This report is one of a series published annually since 1999, and it is prepared by the Australian Institute of Criminology. It collects data from persons taken into custody in South Australia at the Adelaide and Elizabeth police stations and in similar stations in other states. The data includes urinanalysis from each person taken into custody, and that enables a drug analysis to be undertaken.

The latest report reveals that, across the whole of the country, 49 per cent of detainees tested positive to cannabis in 2007, with 55 per cent positive at Elizabeth, 52 per cent at Adelaide, 51 per cent at East Perth and down to 40 per cent in Footscray and Bankstown. The Australian Institute of Criminology concludes that since 2004 there has been a declining trend in cannabis use in the Adelaide site. However, on the subject of heroin, it concludes that, 'since 2005, while most sites have been experiencing a decline in the number of 1880s testing positive to heroin, the number is increasing in Adelaide and Brisbane'.

In relation to methylamphetamine, the institute concludes that the percentage of detainees testing positive to methylamphetamine varied between the sites, with 36 per cent of adult detainees at Elizabeth testing positive; 33 per cent in East Perth; 27 per cent in Adelaide; and in varying proportions down from that number to zero in Alice Springs.

In response to an earlier question I asked in 2005 about the release of a similar report at that time, the Attorney-General described the information in these reports as a 'rich information source' which was used in policing, crime prevention planning, policy development, research and health service delivery. He pointed to the fact that the Department of Justice publishes the South Australian Drug Use Monitoring Australia (DUMA) analysis quarterly. He stated:

Reports can be downloaded from the Office of Crime Statistics and Research website. This information is available to, and used by, the public to inform activity targeting harmful drug use.

In fact, within a few weeks of that answer having been given, the Department of Justice ceased to publish that data. The latest report indicates that the South Australian Attorney-General's Department has refused to extend funding for the analysis at the Elizabeth site beyond the end of this year. My questions are:

1. What is the justification for the Attorney-General refusing to fund the continuation of this valuable data collection at Elizabeth in South Australia?

2. What information has been derived from this material which has been used in policing, crime prevention, planning, policy development, research and health service delivery, as previously advised by the Attorney?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Small Business) (15:21): I will refer that question to the Attorney-General and bring back a reply.

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