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Table DUP-3. Prevalence of drug use within prison 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 during the last incarceration. 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		33
Belgium	1999	2	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
Belgium	1997	3	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
Bulgaria	2006	1	People registered (in the judicial and medical files) as lifetime drug users in prison (self-report). Comment: national survey in 17 prisons among prisoners (n= 2562)	Any illicit drug		1
				cannabis		0.5
				cocaine		0.0
				heroin		0.6
				amphetamines		0.0
				ecstasy		0.0
Bulgaria	2006	1	People registered (in the judicial and medical files) as last year drug users in prison (self-report). Comment: national survey in 17 prisons among prisoners (n= 2562)	Any illicit drug		1
				cannabis		0.2
				cocaine		0.0
				heroin		0.4
				amphetamines		0.1
				ecstasy		0.0
Bulgaria	2006	1	People registered (in the judicial and medical files) as last month drug users in prison (self-report). Comment: national survey in 17 prisons among prisoners (n= 2562)	Any illicit drug		0.1
				cannabis		0.04
				cocaine		0.0
				heroin		0.04
				amphetamines		0.0
				ecstasy		0.0
Germany	1996	3	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	2000	1	People reporting lifetime drug use while in prison. Comment: survey in 1 prison amongst on remand and convicted prisoners (n= 136).	any illicit drug		46
Greece	1995	5	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		54
				cannabis		5
				cocaine		0.4
				heroin		39
France	1997	4	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
Ireland	1996	5	Men reporting heroin use while in prison (current sentence). Comment: survey in one male prison (one-fifth systematic sample) (n= 108).	heroin (males)		42
Ireland	1996	5	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	2003	1	People reporting lifetime drug use in prison. Comment: national survey in 11 (out of 15) prisons with at least 100 convicted persons (n= 2867).	cannabis		28
				cocaine		4
				heroin		12
				amphetamines		12
				ecstasy		7
Latvia	2003	1	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= 2867).	cannabis		15
				cocaine		2
				heroin		5
				amphetamines		8
				ecstasy		4
Latvia	2003	1	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= 2867).	cannabis		6
				cocaine		1
				heroin		2
				amphetamines		2
				ecstasy		1
Lithuania	2003	1	People reporting drug use within the last year in prison. Comment: national survey in all 14 prisons among on remand and convicted prisoners at 31.12.2003 (n= 8063).	any illicit drug		13
				cannabis		0.1
				heroin		9.5
				cocaine		0.03
				stimulants		1
				several drugs		3
Hungary	2004	1	People reporting lifetime drug use 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)		8
				cannabis (adult males)		6
				cocaine (adult males)		1
				heroin (adult males)		1
				amphetamines (adult males)		1
				ecstasy (adult males)		3
Hungary	2004	1	People reporting drug use within the last year 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)		5
				cannabis (adult males)		3
				cocaine (adult males)		0.4
				heroin (adult males)		0.2
				amphetamines (adult males)		0.4
				ecstasy (adult males)		1
Hungary	2004	1	People reporting drug use within the last month 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)		3
				cannabis (adult males)		1
				cocaine (adult males)		0.2
				heroin (adult males)		0
				amphetamines (adult males)		0
				ecstasy (adult males)		0.3
Hungary	1997	1	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 (adult males)		8
				cannabis (adult males)		2
				cocaine (adult males)		1
				heroin (adult males)		0.5
				ecstasy (adult males)		2
				amphetamines (adult males)		2
				other drugs (adult males)		3
Portugal	2001	1	People reporting drug use within the last year in prison. Comment: nationwide survey (47 prisons) in a random sample of on remand and convicted prisoners (n= 2057).	any illicit drug		52
				cannabis		44
				cocaine		26
				heroin		33
				amphetamines		10
				ecstasy		10
Portugal	2001	1	People reporting drug use within the last month in prison. Comment: nationwide survey (47 prisons) in a random sample of on remand and convicted prisoners (n= 2057).	any illicit drug		30
				cannabis		24
				cocaine		7
				heroin		15.5
				amphetamines		1.5
				ecstasy		1
Portugal	2001	1	People reporting regular (everyday) drug use within the last month in prison. Comment: nationwide survey (47 prisons) in a random sample of on remand and convicted prisoners (n= 2057).	any illicit drug		10
				cannabis		5.5
				cocaine		2
				heroin		5
Finland	2001	1	People reporting illicit drug use while in prison. Comment: national survey among a sample of voluntary HIV tested convicted prisoners (n= 825).			16.5
United Kingdom (England and Wales)	2001	1	Women reporting drug use in the current period in prison. Comment: national survey among all prisoners (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
United Kingdom (England and Wales)	2001	1	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
United Kingdom (England and Wales)	1997	4	People reporting drug use during the last time in prison. Comment: nationwide survey in all 131 prisons (n =3142).	cannabis	(3)	19-46
				cocaine	(3)	1-4
				heroin	(3)	12-20
				amphetamines	(3)	0-4
				crack	(3)	2-8
United Kingdom (Scotland)	2004	9	People reporting drug use during the current imprisonment. Comment: nationwide survey among all prisoners (n= 4792).	any illicit drug		35
				cannabis		27
				cocaine		5
				heroin		24
				amphetamines		2
				ecstasy		4
United Kingdom (Scotland)	2003	10	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		24
				cocaine/crack		6
				heroin/methadone/other opiates		21
				amphetamines		5
Norway	2002	1	People reporting drug use during the current imprisonment. Comment: national survey in all 52 prisons among on remand and convicted prisoners (n= 1074).	any illicit drug		26-38
Norway	1997-1996	2	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:

(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.

Sources:

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