• Heroin remains drug of choice for half of IDRS sample, with 60% having used heroin in the previous six months. Use varies across jurisdictions with highest use in New South Wales and Victoria and lowest use in the Northern Territory and Tasmania.
• Those who had recently used heroin were significantly more likely than those who had not to be male, to have begun injecting earlier, to have a longer injecting history, to be in treatment, to have a prison history, to inject at least daily in the previous month, to have very high psychological distress levels, and to have riskier injecting practices.
• Sixty eight participants had overdosed on heroin in the past 12 months and most had experienced previous multiple overdoses.
• Although heroin use may be declining (AIHW 2014), risk factors associated with use may have a high negative impact. These findings highlight the need for maintaining focused harm minimisation measures.

Resources

• IDRSDecember2014.pdf

Author(s)

Fairlie McIlwraith, Sophie Hickey, Rosa Alati