Illicit drug use falling, official figures show
Illicit drug use in Scotland has shown a decline in the years up to 2014-15, according to official figures published today.
The latest figures from the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS) show that in 2014-15, 6.0% of adults reported having used one or more illicit drugs in the last year. This was a decrease from 7.6% of adults in 2008-09.
The publication presents statistics on adults' drug use in three time periods: at some point in their lives, in the last year and in the last month, derived from the respondent self-report section of the SCJS. All three reporting time periods showed a decline: thiose who said they had used drugs in the past month were down from 4.4% to 3.3%, while those who said they had ever used drugs were down from 25.6% to 22.1%. There was also a decline in class A, B and C drugs over this seven year period.
By gender, illegal use in the past year fell from 11.1% to 8.9% amongst men, and from 4.3% to 3.4% amongst women.
Cannabis was the most commonly used drug, with 5.0% of adults reporting use in the last year, down from 6.2% in the 2008-09 survey. Eight in 10 drug users (80.7%) said that they had used cannabis; 29.3% said they had used cocaine, and 21.7% said they had used ecstasy. Half of those 16 taking more than one drug in the last year had taken different drugs at the same time, and nearly two thirds consumed alcohol at the same time as taking drugs.
For the first time, the SCJS asked respondents whether they had ever taken new psychoactive substances, also known as "legal highs". An estimated 1.6% of adults reported that they had taken substances sold as legal highs, at some time in the past, breaking down 4.1% of 16-24 year olds, 2.7% of 25-44 year olds, and 0.5% of 45-60 year olds.
There was statistically significant decrease between 2008-09 (13.7%) and 2014-15 (8.9%) in those reporting that someone had offered to give or sell them at least one type of illicit drug in the last year. Among the 16-24 age group, the fall was from 41.4% to 27.5%. However, of those who had used drugs in the last month, most said that it was very easy (40.5%) or fairly easy (43.4%) to get hold of the drug they used most often.
Higher levels of drug use are found in younger age groups, men, those working routine/manual professions, those living in deprived areas and those who are victims of crime.