Drug use prevalence


We have conducted research to measure the extent of problem drug use in the general population and how many problematic drug users there are.

Several projects are examining drug use within the general population or sections of it.

Previous research has indicated that certain parts of the population are more likely to use drugs than others. We have carried out work in order to help quantify and understand this issue, including the extent of problematic drug users (see OLR 16/6).

We also measure the extent of harm caused by drug use across the population. This covers harm caused by crime and harm to people’s health, amongst others.

Key publications

• Drug Misuse Declared: Findings from the 2007/08 British Crime Survey, HOSB 13/08, 2008
• Measuring different aspects of problem drug use: methodological developments, OLR 16/06, 2006
• Drug use among vulnerable groups of young people: findings from the 2003 Crime & Justice Survey Findings 254, 2005
• Measuring the harm from illegal drugs using the Drug Harm Index, OLR 24/05, 2005
• Estimating prevalence of problematic and injecting drug use for drug action team areas in England: a feasibility study using the Multiple Indicator Method, OLR 34/04, 2004

Latest publications

• National and regional estimates of the prevalence of opiate use and/or crack cocaine use 2006/07: a summary of key findings, Research Report 09, 2008
• Measuring the harm from illegal drugs: the Drug Harm Index 2005, Online Report 22/07, 2007
• National and regional estimates of the prevalence of opiate use and/or crack cocaine use 2005/06: a summary of key findings, Online Report 21/07, 2007

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