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Table Prison-3. Prevalence of drug use within prison among prisoners (estimated percentage)

                 
Country Source / ref. Year

Definition and methodological comments

Drug used (and, if any, restriction on base popn.)

 % IDU
               
Belgium 1 1999 people reporting regular drug use during previous and current imprisonments
Comment: survey in two prisons (1 male prison + 1 woman section in another prison) amongst voluntary prisoners (n= 246)		 any illicit drug 42    
        cannabis 37    
        cocaine 9    
        heroin 13    
        amphetamines 8    
        ecstasy 5    
        LSD 2    
  2 1997 people reporting lifetime drug use in prison
Comment: survey in one prison amongst on remand and convicted prisoners (n=115)		 cannabis 38    
        cocaine 15    
        amphetamines 4    
        ecstasy 8    
Finland 1 2001 people reporting illicit drug use while in prison
Comment: national survey among a sample of voluntary HIV tested convicted prisoners (n= 825)		   16.5    
France 3 1997 people reporting drug use within the last year while in prison
Comment: survey in 3 prisons among on remand and convicted prisoners (n=960)		 cannabis 24    
        cocaine 7    
        amphetamines 2    
        ecstasy 3    
Germany 2 1996 drug users in prison (based on information given by key persons)
Comment: survey in one prison based on reports of pre-selected key prisoners (n=16), doctor, pastor(s)		   60    
Greece 1 2000 people reporting lifetime drug use while in prison
Comment: survey in 1 prison amongst on remand and convicted prisoners (n= 136)		 any illicit drug 47    
  4 1995 lifetime drug use in prison (based on self-reports and serum tests)
Comment: survey in 2 prisons amongst convicted voluntary prisoners (n= 544)		 any illicit drugs 56    
        cannabis 5    
        cocaine 0.4    
        heroin 40    
Hungary 1 1997 people reporting drug use at any time during imprisonment
Comment: national survey in a sample of all prisons amongst adult male prisoners of Hungarian citizenship (n= 951)		 any illicit drug (males) 8    
        cannabis (males) 2    
        cocaine (males) 1    
        heroin (males) 1    
        ecstasy (males) 2    
        amphetamines (males) 2    
        other drugs (males) 3    
Ireland 5 1996 men reporting heroin use while in prison (current sentence)
Comment: survey in one male prison (one-fifth systematic sample) (n=108)		 heroin (males) 42    
  5 1996 men reporting regular (once a week) heroin use while in prison (current sentence)
Comment: survey in one male prison (one-fifth systematic sample) (n=108)		 heroin (males) 36    
Latvia 1 2003 people reporting lifetime drug use in prison
Comment: national survey in 11 (out of 15) prisons with at least 100 convicted persons (n= 2.867)		 cannabis 28    
        cocaine 4    
        heroin 12    
        amphetamines 12    
        ecstasy 7    
  1 2003 people reporting drug use within the last year in prison
Comment: national survey in 11 (out of 15) prisons with at least 100 convicted persons (n= 2.867)		 cannabis 15    
        cocaine 2    
        heroin 5    
        amphetamines 8    
        ecstasy 4    
  1 2003 people reporting drug use within the last month in prison
Comment: national survey in 11 (out of 15) prisons with at least 100 convicted persons (n= 2.867)		 cannabis 6    
        cocaine 1    
        heroin 2    
        amphetamines 2    
        ecstasy 1    
Portugal 1 2001 people reporting drug use within the last year in prison
Comment: natiowide survey (47 prisons) in a random sample of on remand and convicted prisoners (n=2.057)		 any illicit drug 52    
        cannabis 44    
        cocaine 26    
        heroin 33    
        amphetamines 10    
        ecstasy 10    
  1 2001 people reporting drug use within the last month in prison
Comment: natiowide survey (47 prisons) in a random sample of on remand and convicted prisoners (n=2.057)		 any illicit drug 30    
        cannabis 24    
        cocaine 7    
        heroin 15.5    
        amphetamines 1.5    
        ecstasy 1    
  1 2001 people reporting regular (everyday) drug use within the last month in prison
Comment: natiowide survey (47 prisons) in a random sample of on remand and convicted prisoners (n=2.057)		 any illicit drug 10    
        cannabis 5.5    
        cocaine 2    
        heroin 5    
U.K. England & Wales 1 2001 women reporting drug use in the current period in prison
Comment: national survey of female prisoners on remand and convicted in 10 prisons (n= 301)		 any illicit drug (females) 51    
        cannabis (females) 23    
        cocaine/crack (females) 9    
        heroin/opiates (females) 40    
        amphetamines (females) 1    
        ecstasy (females) 2    
        other tranquilizers (females) 18    
  1 2001 women reporting regular drug use (weekly or more frequent) in prison
Comment: national survey of female prisoners on remand and convicted in 10 prisons (n= 301)		 any illicit drug (females) 27    
        cannabis (females) 4    
        cocaine/crack (females) 3    
        heroin/opiates (females) 19    
        other tranquilizers (females) 9    
  4 1997 people reporting drug use during the last time in prison
Comment: nationwide survey in all 131 prisons (n=3.142)		 cannabis 19-46    
        cocaine 1-4    
        heroin 12-20    
        amphetamines 0-4    
        crack 2-8    
U.K. Scotland 9 2003 people reporting drug use during the current imprisonment
Comment: national survey in 16 prisons among all prisoners available at the time of the survey (n= 4741)		 any illicit drug 32    
        cannabis
cocaine/crack
heroin/methadone/
other opiates
amphetamines		 24
6
21

5		    
Norway 1 2002 people reporting drug use during the current imprisonment
Comment: national survey in all 52 prisons among on remand and convicted prisoners (n= 1.074)		 any illicit drug 26-38    
  2 1997-1996 inmates who used drugs once or several times while serving their sentence
Comment: estimated by prison authorities on the basis of previous studies in prison and reports submitted by prison and visitation officials		   40-60    
               
Notes:              
Caution should be applied when considering that a survey is said to be 'national' as this refers to its intended geographical coverage, but does not mean it is necessarily representative of the national situation, which would depend on any sampling procedures adopted. Note that the size of the prison population surveyed is not available for most of the studies displayed in this table, and sample sizes reflect different proportions of the population in different countries.    
England & Wales 1997: results are provided for 4 different sub-groups of population: male remanded, male sentenced, female remanded, female sentenced. Women and men on remand represent a small proportion of the prison population, and thus these groups were over-sampled. Ranges reported here represent the minimum and maximum values obtained across the 4 sub-groups.    
     
Sources:              
For sources and bibliographic references, refer to [Table Prison-0].    
               
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