§ Mr. LloydTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many(a) registered addicts and (b) non-registered addicts of (i) cocaine and (ii) heroin there were in the UK in each of the last 10 years. [15538]
§ Mr. Bob AinsworthThe term 'registered addict' has no generally agreed definition in the United Kingdom.
The Home Office previously collected and published information relating to individuals notified to the Addicts Index. Since the Addicts Index closed at the end of April 1997, there are no current figures from that source. However, the Department of Health publishes information on the number of persons presenting to drug misuse services for treatment in Great Britain who are reported to the Drug Misuse Databases; this includes persons with a main drug of misuse of heroin or cocaine. Figures are only available for the period April-September 1993 onwards, and are given in Table 1.
The number of addicts (including those not in treatment) is unknown. Traditionally, a multiplier method was used based on the Addicts Index. However, a more robust approach has been developed recently by a group of researchers. The findings are given in Table 2.
Table 2—Summary of 1996 United Kingdom prevalence estimates for drug use based on multiplier methods and household survey data Method Form of drug use Estimate Multiple indicator method Problematic drug users 268,253 Treatment demographic method Problematic opiate users 162,544 Treatment coverage method Problematic opiate users 243,820 HIV multiplier Injecting drug users 161,200 Mortality multiplier Drug users at risk of overdose related death 161,133 Household Survey data Opiates+ users 251,000 Household Survey data Injecting drug users 168,905 Government estimate Severely dependent drug misusers 100,000–200,000 Source:
Table 5, Frischer M, Hickman M, Kraus L, Mariani F, and Wiessing L. (2001). 'A comparison of different methods for estimating the prevalence of problematic drug misuse in Great Britain'. Addiction, 96, 1465–1476.