Just one or two days in jail for ice users on probation can reduce crime and drug use says US professor at NDARC conference

- DIARY ALERT -

Jail sentences as short as one to three days reduce crime, drug use and incarceration among ice users on probation, according to research to be presented at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre Annual Symposium next week.

Keynote speaker Angela Hawken, Associate Professor of Public Policy at Pepperdine University in California and Director of the USDOJ-supported Swift, Certain, and Fair Resource Center has found that offenders on probation whose main drug of concern was ice were 55 per cent less likely to be arrested for a new crime and 72 per cent less likely to use drugs when courts intervened with immediate short jail sentences.

The probation-based intervention “Hawaii’s Opportunity Probation with Enforcement” (HOPE), has been implemented under many names (under an umbrella term “Swift, Certain, Fair Supervision”) in 28 U.S. states and in one tribal court since it was first introduced in 2004. The program involves random drug testing of probationerswho have been repeatedly violating the terms of their probation as a result of their drug use, with ice being the main drug of concern.

Offenders who violate the terms of their probation by using drugs are immediately given short jail sentences of between one and three days instead of much longer sentences, which could vary depending on the Judge or the court.

WHAT: National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) Annual Symposium

WHEN: Tuesday September 15^th 2015.

WHERE: John Niland Scientia Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney. Enter the UNSW campus via Gate 11, Botany St, Kensington. Map below.

Associate Professor Hawken and NDARC Director Professor Michael Farrell are available for interview on Tuesday September 15th.

ALSO TO BE DISCUSSED AT THE NDARC SYMPOSIUM. ABSTRACT HIGHLIGHTS

TREATMENTS FOR METHAMPHETAMINE USE DISORDERS

• Methamphetamine users are at a high risk of psychosis and schizophrenia from late teens to early 30s and opportunities for early intervention may be missed
• Promising  treatments for methamphetamine use disorders include new pharmacotherapies; mindfulness therapies as an alternative to cognitive behaviour therapy

• People seeking treatment for opioid dependence e in Australia are older, more likely to be female, more likely to use pharmaceutical painkillers such as codeine and oxycodone, less likely to inject and more likely to live in remote and rural areas compared with a decade ago (Suzanne Nielsen)
• The number of Australians receiving treatment for dependence on the painkillers codeine and oxycodone trebled in the nine years from 2002
• One in five people in treatment for opioid dependence are being treated for dependence on pharmaceutical opioids – most commonly morphine, codeine, oxycodone and fentanyl.

• The US, UK, Australia, the Netherlands and China are the top five countries selling drugs on the dark web. Australia has the most individual sellers per head of the population (Joe Van Buskirk)
• China is the most prolific seller of new psychoactive substances
• Following the closure of the Silk Road the mostactive new marketplaces are Nucleus and Agora
• 17 in depth anonymous interviews with drug users who used Silk Road and its successor to purchase drugs reveals that typically users increased their drug use in the first few months using online marketplaces because of ease of availability. Many turned to online marketplaces because of the stigma associated with buying drugs in the “real world” (Monica Barratt)

• Young people with specific personality types – negative thinking; anxiety sensitivity; sensation seeking and impulsivity - are prone to higher alcohol use than their peers. An Australian trial which provides prevention programs to 13 and 14 year olds with these personality types has been shown to reduce alcohol harms; alcohol use and symptoms of mental health problems (Nicola Newton)
• How do young peoples’ friendships affect theory alcohol use? Do they choose friends who have similar attitudes to alcohol use or do they change their alcohol use depending on friends of friends or in order to become more popular? A new Australian study is attempting to find the answers (Tim Slade)

Abstracts and program are available for download here.

Media contacts: 

Marion Downey: (02) 9385 0180 | 0401 713 850 | m.downey@unsw.edu.au

Alexandra Pitzing: (02) 9385 0124 | 0432 894 776 | a.pitzing@unsw.edu.au