Illegal drug use in the age of ageing

Abstract

Both historically and currently, UK policies on illegal drug use have been largely focused towards younger people, but there is growing evidence of a shift in the demographic profile of people who use illegal drugs, with an increasing substantial number of drug users aged over 40 years. There is limited evidence for a change in the age profile of drug users from the British Crime Survey which documents drug use in the general population of England and Wales.1 This survey reports that the prevalence of illegal drug use (predominantly cannabis, cocaine powder, ecstasy, amyl nitrate, and amphetamines) in the previous year has fallen significantly between 1996 and 2008/2009 for those aged 16 to 29 years, while the prevalence has increased among those aged 30 to 59 years.1 Unfortunately, the British Crime Survey does not collect information about illegal drug use by those aged 60 years and over, so identifying population level data on drug use for the oldest age groups presents a challenge. Further evidence of this demographic change among people accessing drug treatment services (primarily users of opiates and/or crack cocaine),2 is available from surveillance data. Using data from established monitoring systems (including the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System [NDTMS] which currently records data on people accessing structured treatment interventions in England), Beynon et al 3 demonstrate that the percentage of people in drug treatment in Cheshire and Merseyside aged 40 years and over increased from 9.8% in 1998 to 23.1% in 2004/2005 (with 1.7% of these aged 50 years and over in …