This report presents the results of the 2014 Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS) for the Northern Territory (NT).
The IDRS is coordinated by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) which is part of the University of New South Wales. It is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health (AGDH).
The purpose of the IDRS is to provide a standardised, comparable approach to the monitoring of data relating to the use of opiates, cocaine, methamphetamine and cannabis. It is intended to act as a ‘strategic early warning system’ – identifying emerging drug problems of national and jurisdictional concern.
In the NT, a partial IDRS, not including the participants’ survey, was conducted by the then Territory Health Services (now NT Department of Health) in 1999. In 2000 and 2001, the full methodology was conducted through the Northern Territory University (now Charles Darwin University). Since 2002, the full IDRS has been conducted by the NT Department of Health. Reports of these studies are available to download from the NDARC website.
Reports of the IDRS findings for individual states and territories are published by NDARC, and each year NDARC produces and publishes a national report presenting an overall picture which includes comparison of jurisdictions.