[AUS] [Melbourne] Cocaine Market Study

[turningpoint]

Hi Bluelighters.

This study has been posted on the front of pillreports. There was also a reference to it in this thread a few months back. We will be closing the study soon, so if you are interested and eligible - throw Jenn an email!

Melbourne Cocaine Market Study

If you are over 18 years, live in Melbourne and have used cocaine in the past 6 months, you may be interested in participating in a confidential web-based study of cocaine markets. Survey confidentiality is protected by a secured link with encrypted data transmission. This research has been approved by the relevant institutional research ethics committees.

Log on to www.turningpoint.org.au/cocaine.html

We are also conducting confidential and anonymous face-to-face and telephone interviews. People participating in these interviews are reimbursed for out-of-pocket expenses.

If you are interested in taking part in an interview or in finding out more about the study, please contact Jenn on 8413 8417 or 0413 355 890 or email [email protected]

 

[turningpoint]

Thanks to those who've participated so far. The survey closes tomorrow. We will report back when the results are available.

cheers
from the research team at turning point

 

[Tronica]

I'm not an author on this project, but I was the one who posted it here for recruitment and I did conduct a few of the research interviews back in 2004/05.

Here are some publications that arose from this project:

Technical report

Shearer, J., Johnston, J., Kaye, S., Dillon, P., & Collins, L. (2005). Characteristics and dynamics of cocaine supply and demand in Sydney and Melbourne. Adelaide: National Drug Law Enforcement Research Fund

PDF link

Journal article

Shearer, J., Johnston, J., Fry, C. L., Kaye, S., Dillon, P., Dietze, P., et al. (2007). Contemporary cocaine use patterns and associated harms in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. Drug and Alcohol Review, 26(5), 537-543.

Abstract:

The aim of this paper was to explore the nature of cocaine use and harms through a cross-sectional survey of cocaine users interviewed in the two largest Australian cities of Sydney (n = 88 ) and Melbourne (n = 77) between October 2004 and January 2005. The study supported previous findings that Australian cocaine users could be classified broadly into two types. The majority of cocaine users interviewed were classified as socially and economically integrated. They were young, employed, well-educated people who generally snorted cocaine on a recreational basis, typically in conjunction with other illicit and licit drugs. A second group of socially and economically marginalised users, residing mainly in Sydney, injected cocaine often in conjunction with heroin. This group reported significantly higher levels of cocaine use, cocaine dependence, criminal behaviour and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) risk-taking behaviour. Heroin use was found to predict independently higher levels of cocaine use, criminal behaviour, needle sharing and physical problems in this sample, suggesting that increased resources and coverage for combined heroin/cocaine users may have scope for reducing cocaine-related problems in the Australian community.

PM me if you are interested in the fulltext journal article