You are viewing archived content

Please note that this page is a static copy of a previously published web page and is no longer actively maintained.
Be aware that the information contained here may be out-of-date.
For the most recent information, we recommend visiting the main website of the EMCDDA.

Table DUP-1. Prevalence of lifetime drug use among prisoners, 1995-2006

Country	Year	Ref. (1)	Definition and methodological comments (2)	Drug used (and if any: restriction on base population)		%
Belgium	2003	1	People reporting having used illicit drugs (prior/within prison). Comment: survey in a random sample of 10 prisons (over a total of 38) among on remand, convicted and social defence (psychiatric cases) prisoners (n= 886).	any illicit drug		51
				cannabis		47
				cocaine		36
				heroin		26
				amphetamines		33
				ecstasy		31
Belgium	1993	4	People reporting having used illicit drugs. Comment: survey in one prison amongst voluntary prisoners entering prison (n = 1627)			42
Greece	2000	1	People reporting lifetime drug use prior to imprisonment. Comments: survey in 1 prison amongst on remand and convicted prisoners (n = 136)	any illicit drug		48
Greece	1998	3	Adolescents reporting lifetime drug use prior to imprisonment. Comment: survey in 2 prisons for adolescents, both on remand and convicted, enrolled in vocational training (n= 100).	cannabis (adolescents)		46
				cocaine (adolescents)		18
				heroin (adolescents)		19
				amphetamines (adolescents)		4
				ecstasy (adolescents)		7
				other drugs (adolescents)		11
Greece	1995	5	Lifetime drug use prior to imprisonment (based on self-reports and serum tests). Comment: survey in 2 prisons amongst convicted voluntary prisoners (n= 544).	cannabis		22
				cocaine		6
				heroin		66
Spain	1998	3	Women reporting lifetime drug use (alcohol included). Comment: survey in 18 prisons (n = 356).	any illicit drug - alcohol included (females)		70
Ireland	1996	5	Men reporting lifetime drug use. Comment: survey in one male prison (one-fifth systematic sample) (n= 108).	any illicit drug (males)		86
				cannabis (males)		86
				cocaine (males)		56
				heroin (males)		66
				amphetamines (males)		61
				ecstasy (males)		60
Latvia	2003	1	People reporting lifetime drug use prior to imprisonment. Comment: national survey in 11 (out of 15) prisons with at least 100 convicted persons (n= 2867).	cannabis		51
				cocaine		15
				heroin		24
				amphetamines		22
Hungary	2004	1	People reporting lifetime drug use prior to imprisonment. Comment: national survey in 11 prisons amongst a proportional random sample of adult male convicted prisoners of Hungarian citizenship (n= 609)	any illicit drug (adult males)		31.5
				cannabis (adult males)		26
				cocaine (adult males)		11
				heroin (adult males)		7
				amphetamines (adult males)		16
				ecstasy (adult males)		16
Hungary	2004	1	People reporting lifetime drug use (both prior to and in prison). Comment: national survey in 11 prisons amongst a proportional random sample of adult male convicted prisoners of Hungarian citizenship (n= 609)	any illicit drug (adult males)		34
				cannabis (adult males)		27
				cocaine (adult males)		11
				heroin (adult males)		8
				amphetamines (adult males)		16
				ecstasy (adult males)		17
Hungary	1997	2	Lifetime drug use prior to imprisonment (based on self-reports and serum tests). Comment: national survey in a sample of all prisons amongst adult male prisoners of Hungarian citizenship (n= 951).	any illicit drug (adult males)		22
				cannabis (adult males)		11
				cocaine (adult males)		5
				heroin (adult males)		3
				amphetamines (adult males)		7
				other drugs (adult males)		1
Netherlands	2003	1	Men reporting lifetime drug use prior to imprisonment. Comment: survey in 8 prisons among male detainees (n = 355).	any illicit drug (males)		79
Netherlands	2002-2003	2	Youth reporting lifetime drug use prior to imprisonment. Comment: survey in 8 youth detention centers in 3 regions among a representative sample (n= 205) (random sample of 135 boys and oversample of 70 girls) of 14-17 year-olds on remand and convicted.	cannabis (youth)		78
				cocaine (youth)		11
				heroin/opiates (youth)		4
				amphetamines (youth)		8
				ecstasy (youth)		18
				hallucinogenic mushrooms (youth)		13
				crack (youth)		2
				LSD (youth)		3
Netherlands	1999	4	Young males reporting lifetime drug use prior to imprisonment. Comment: survey in 6 out of 9 youth detention centres among a sample (assumed to be representative) of incarcerated boys (12-18 year-olds) (n= 204).	cannabis (young males)		86
				cocaine (young males)		21
				heroin/opiates (young males)		5
				amphetamines or ecstasy (young males)		21
				hallucinogens (young males)		18
Netherlands	1989-1990	9	Young male offenders reporting lifetime drug use prior to imprisonment (DSM-III). Comment: survey among young male convicted detainees in one youth detention centre, aged 18-24 years (n= 200).	any illicit drug (young males)		58
Austria	1994	3	People reporting having used illicit drugs. Comment: survey in one prison amongst Narcotic Drug Act convicted people (n= 307).			72
Portugal	2001	1	People reporting lifetime drug use prior to imprisonment. Comment: nationwide survey (47 prisons) in a random sample of on remand and convicted prisoners (n= 2057).	any illicit drug		61
				cannabis		54
				cocaine		44
				heroin		44
				amphetamines		18
				ecstasy		16
Finland	2001	1	People reporting having used illicit drugs. Comment: national survey among a sample of voluntary HIV tested convicted prisoners (n= 825).	any illicit drug		58
				opiates		5
				amphetamines		29
Finland	1995	3	People reporting having used illicit drugs Comments: survey in 4 prisons			31
United Kingdom (England and Wales)	2001	1	Women reporting lifetime drug use. Comment: national survey of female prisoners on remand and convicted in 10 prisons (n= 301).	any illicit drug (females)		84
				cannabis (females)		78
				cocaine/crack (females)		57
				heroin/opiates (females)		60
				amphetamines (females)		58
				ecstasy (females)		47
				other tranquilizers (females)		57
United Kingdom (England and Wales)	1997	4	People reporting lifetime drug use prior to imprisonment. Comment: nationwide survey in all 131 prisons (n= 3142).	any illicit drugs	(3)	69-85
				cannabis	(3)	65-82
				cocaine	(3)	30-42
				heroin	(3)	34-52
				amphetamines	(3)	40-53
				crack	(3)	28-44
Norway	2002	1	People reporting lifetime drug use prior to imprisonment. Comment: national survey in all 52 prisons among on remand and convicted prisoners (n= 1074).	any illicit drug		70
				cannabis		65
				cocaine		51
				heroin		37
				amphetamines		59
				ecstasy		45
Bulgaria	2006	1	People registered (in the judicial and medical files) as lifetime drug users prior to imprisonment (self-report). Comment: national survey in 6 prisons among prisoners (n= 3733)	Any illicit drug		11
Bulgaria	2006	1	People registered (in the judicial and medical files) as lifetime drug users prior to imprisonment (self-report). Comment: national survey in 17 prisons among prisoners (n= 7274)	cannabis		7
				cocaine		1
				heroin		9
				amphetamines		2
				ecstasy		2
Bulgaria	2006	2	People registered (in the judicial and medical files) as lifetime drug users prior to imprisonment (self-report). Comment: national survey in 17 prisons among on remand detainees (n= 3567)	Any illicit drug		8
				cannabis		1
				cocaine		0.3
				heroin		5
				amphetamines		0.3
				ecstasy		0.8
Bulgaria	2006	3	People reporting lifetime drug use prior to/within prison. Comment: national survey in 10 prisons among sentenced detainees (n= 1257)	Any illicit drug		37
				cannabis		31
				cocaine		23
				heroin		23
				amphetamines		19
				ecstasy		18
Bulgaria	2004	4	People registered (in the judicial file) as lifetime drug users prior to imprisonment. Comment: national survey based on cases for which drug use prior to imprisonment was mentioned during the collection of data for the judicial file, among all convicted detainees (n= 11.521)	any illicit drug		15
				cannabis		4
				cocaine		3
				heroin		4
				amphetamines		2
				ecstasy		2
Bulgaria	2004	5	People in contact with health services, psychologists and social workers reporting lifetime drug use prior to imprisonment. Comment: national survey in all prisons in Bulgaria (n=11.521)	any illicit drug	(4)	7
				cannabis	(4)	1
				cocaine	(4)	0.8
				heroin	(4)	3
				amphetamines	(4)	0.5
				ecstasy	(4)	0.8

Notes:

(1) For sources and bibliographic references, the numbering refers to Table DUP-0.

(2) 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.

(3) 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.

(4) Bulgaria: due to fear of sanction it is likely that drug use is under-reported.

Sources:

For access to sources and bibliographic references, refer to Table DUP-0.