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 for clients in Victoria (35% of episodes) (Figure 6; Table SE VIC.10)
- amphetamines were also a common principal drug of concern, accounting for more than one-fifth of episodes (28%), followed by cannabis (20%), and heroin (7%).
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 (15% of episodes), followed by cannabis (14%), alcohol (11%), and amphetamines (8%) (Table SE VIC.11).
Over the period 2013–14 to 2017–18:
- alcohol has remained the most common principal drug of concern for clients in Victoria (Table SE VIC.10), rising in 2017–18 (35%), after a decrease from 2013–14 (41%) to 2016–17 (30%)
- amphetamines has remained the second most common principal drug of concern for the third year in a row, having replaced cannabis in 2015–16. The proportion of episodes with a principal drug of concern for amphetamines rose from 16% to 28%
- the proportion of closed treatment episodes for cannabis has fluctuated; rising from 21% in 2013–14 to 22% in 2014–15, decreasing in 2016–17 (17%), then increasing again in 2017–18 (20%).