NI Cannabis Stats Revealed

Key statistics in the fight against illegal drugs use in Northern Ireland have been revealed.

The Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety today published a statistical bulletin presenting the second Drug Prevalence Survey.

The Bulletin, 'Drug Prevalence Survey: Cannabis Results' was published jointly with the National Advisory Committee on Drugs in Ireland and relates to a survey carried out jointly in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland between October 2006 and May 2007.

The main findings relating to cannabis in Northern Ireland in 2006/07 are that prevalence rates were highest among young adults.

The report also found that male respondents reported higher prevalence rates than females across all time periods, with rates for males at 30% compared to 19% for females.

The average age respondents reported that they first used cannabis was 18 for males and 19 for females and among regular users, the average age of first use of cannabis was 16 and the average age of first regular use was 18 years.

Approximately one in six (16%) current cannabis users reported using the drug on a daily or almost daily basis and the majority of current users (85%) smoked cannabis in a joint.

Grass (43%) was the most commonly used form of cannabis; however a third of current users (33%) reported using cannabis resin and more than a third (35%) of recent cannabis users reported the drug was shared among friends, with another 30% being given the drug by family/friends.

Three quarters of recent users (75%) considered it 'very easy' or 'fairly easy' to obtain cannabis within a 24-hour period.

Almost a quarter (24%) of respondents who said that they had ever taken cannabis reported taking the drug regularly.

Of these regular users, almost three quarters (74%) said they had stopped taking cannabis, 13% had tried to stop but failed while another 13% had never tried to stop.

Northern Ireland comparisons between 2002/03 and 2006/07 include:

• Lifetime use of cannabis increased among all adults aged 15-64 from 16.8% in 2002/3 to 24.7% in 2006/7;
• Increases in lifetime use of cannabis were also found among males (from 23.3% to 30.1%), females (from 10.5% to 19.3%), young adults aged 15-34 years (from 25.1% to 35.0%) and older adults aged 35-64 years (from 10.3% to 17.3%);
• Last year use of cannabis increased among all adults aged 15-64 from 5.4% in 2002/3 to 7.2% in 2006/7;
• Increases in last year use were also seen among females (from 2.2% to 4.1%) and older adults aged 35-64 years (from 2.0% to 3.3%) between 2002/3 and 2006/7;
• There were no significant increases in last month use of cannabis among any of the groups of respondents.

(BMcC)