Summary

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) was commissioned by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA) to evaluate the effectiveness of the Council of Australian Governments’ (COAG) Illicit Drug Diversion Initiative (IDDI) in rural and remote areas of Australia. This report presents the project findings. It was agreed at the outset of the project that effectiveness would be evaluated in relation to the following objectives, namely that drug diversion will result in:

  1. people being given early incentives to address their drug use problem, in many cases before incurring a criminal record;
  2. an increase in the number of illicit drug users diverted into drug education, assessment and treatment;
  3. a reduction in the number of people being incarcerated for use or possession of small quantities of illicit drugs.

The first two objectives were the initial stated aims of the IDDI, while the third objective was modified by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing to reflect the emergence of court-based models of drug diversion under the IDDI.