Drug Use Monitoring in Australia (DUMA)

This project is the Western Australian arm of a national study which is being managed by the Australian Institute of Criminology. The study is funded by the Federal Ministry of Justice for three years to investigate the prevalence of illicit drug use among people who have recently been charged with a criminal offence. The gathering of such information is necessary for the development of a plan of action to combat the problem of illicit drug use and crime in the community generally.

DUMA is a pilot project that seeks to measure drug use among those people who have been charged with a criminal offence and detailed in a lockup facility in the previous 48 hours, thereby focusing specifically on the drug/crime connection. Voluntary interviews and analysis are being conducted with this section of the alleged offender population on a quarterly basis over a two-three week period.

In Perth the survey takes place in the East Perth lockup with the cooperation and support of the WA Police Service. The first data collection took place in January 1999 and a total of twelve are planned.