Drug Use in Australia: A Randox Toxicology Report
Drug Use in Australia: A Randox Toxicology Report
19 March 2020
Drug Use in Australia
Drug Use in Australia: A Randox Toxicology Report
Approximately 43% of all Australians aged 14 years and over have admitted to using an illicit drug on at least one occasion throughout their life.
Additionally, nearly 16% of Australians have confessed to using an illicit drug at least once in the last year.
Cannabis is the most frequent drug used among the Australian people with an estimate of 35% lifetime use. The closest to this is MDMA which has an estimate of around 11% lifetime use.
A reason towards the high cannabis use may be due to the Australian Capital Territory legalizing the recreational possession and cultivation of marijuana in September 2019. This now allows any residents of the capital territory over the age of 18 to possess up to 50 grams of dried marijuana and grow two plants per person or four per household at a time. The supply of the drug to other people however still remains an illegal act.
It is estimated that approximately 60 per cent of those who use illicit drugs are also daily smokers and/or consume alcohol at a level that is considered to be of risk to their everyday health. Another noticeable finding among drug users in Australia is that the majority of methamphetamine, cocaine or ecstasy users are also users of other illicit drugs.
Using our revolutionary Biochip Array Technology, the Evidence MultiSTAT is a fully automated benchtop analyser that enables onsite, simultaneous testing for up to 21 classical, synthetic or prescription drugs from a single sample in under 20 minutes.
To find out more about our Biochip Array Technology and our Evidence Series range of analysers, visit www.randoxtoxicology.com or email info@randoxtoxicology.com
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Illicit drugs costs the USA more than $740 billion annually
18 February 2020
Illicit drugs affecting the US economy
Illicit drugs costs the USA more than $740 billion annually
The abuse of tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs is extremely costly to the USA, exacting more than $740 billion annually in costs related to crime, lost work productivity and health care, according to a report by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
A substantial number of 70,237 drug overdose deaths occurred in the United States in 2017. Opioids are currently the main driver of drug overdose deaths. Opioids were involved in some 47,600 overdose deaths in 2017 (67.8% of all drug overdose deaths).
In 2017, the states with the highest rates of death due to drug overdose were West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, and Kentucky. States with statistically significant increases in drug overdose death rates from 2016 to 2017 included Alabama, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Randox Toxicology are first to market when it comes to testing for the latest drugs of abuse and new psychoactive substances on the market. Our revolutionary Biochip Array Technology provides state-of-the-art drug detection, utilizing simultaneous drug detection from a single sample across multiple matrices.
To find out more join us at AAFS February 17-22, Anaheim Convention Center, booth #508. Our reps Pankaj, Khushbu and Matt will be there demonstrating our Biochip technology and our Evidence MultiSTAT.
You can also email us at: info@randoxtoxicology.com or visit our website: www.randoxtoxicology.com
Randox Toxicology Products and Services
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The 2019 World Drug Report from Randox Toxicology
24 January 2020
2019 World Drug Report
In the turn of the new year, Randox Toxicology have compiled a 2019 report of trends in drug abuse throughout the world and what the key figures say about drug use in the world.
Opioids
An easy way of seeing how prevalent opioid use is, is the number of opioid overdose deaths. While surveys show an overall decline in the non-medical use of opioids, opioid related deaths continue to increase. The United States recorded the highest number of opioid overdose deaths at over 28,000. Europe is not as heavily affected by opioid use, an example being Sweden. Sweden has the highest number of opioid overdose deaths in Europe, at 590.
Cocaine
Global seizures rose to 1,275 tons, the largest quantity ever reported. This figure highlights the increase in cocaine trafficking. With an estimated 4.2 million people (1.3 per cent of the population) using cocaine, usage of the drug was highest in Western and Central Europe, which accounted for some 90 per cent of all the cocaine use in Europe as a whole.
In Australia, 2.5 per cent of the population aged 14 and older were estimated to have used cocaine in the previous year. The highest estimated prevalence of cocaine was among young adults aged 20-29 also.
Cocaine use was not popular in both Africa in Asia. For Africa, the use of cocaine was estimated to be between 0.02 per cent and 0.40 per cent of the population, while in Asia the cocaine use was estimated to be between 0.04 and 0.07 per cent.
Methamphetamine
The information available globally on methamphetamine, although limited, indicates that there has been a market expansion. The data available shows that this market has been expanding and that the two largest ‘demand regions’ are South-East Asia and North America.
In terms of methamphetamine that has been seized, North American and South-East Asia, respectively account for 49 per cent and 42 per cent of global quantities seized. Despite the overall expansion of methamphetamine markets worldwide, most of the trafficking continues to be intraregional, for example, trafficking within North America or within South-East Asia.
Our testing solution
Randox Toxicology are first to market when it comes to testing for the latest drugs of abuse and new psychoactive substances in the market. Our revolutionary Biochip Array Technology provides state-of-the-art drug detection, utilizing simultaneous drug detection from a single sample across multiple matrices.
Our ELISA kits provide a comprehensive test menu, covering a broad range of drugs of abuse, stimulants, analgesics and sedatives. Randox Toxicology develop the highest quality 96-well microtitre plates available to the market, with results providing excellent correlation with confirmatory methods.
To find out more email us at: info@randoxtoxicology.com or visit our website: www.randoxtoxicology.com
Randox Toxicology Products and Services
BIOCHIP
EVIDENCE
ELISA
MATRICES
Want to know more about Randox?
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Study by Center for Disease Dynamics finds dramatic rise in global antibiotic consumption
A dramatic increase in global consumption of antibiotics has led public health experts to call for innovative new ways to rein in excessive use of the drugs, following a study by the Centre for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy, in Washington DC.
The study found a 65% rise in worldwide consumption of antibiotics from 2000 to 2015, despite efforts to encourage more prudent use of the drugs. The unrestrained use of antibiotics is the main cause of the increasing appearance of drug-resistant infections, which now kill more than half a million people worldwide. A report in 2014 predicted that the spread of drug resistance could claim millions of lives per year by 2050.
Eili Klein, an author of the study, which was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, criticised the global response to the global antibiotic resistance crisis as “slow and inadequate” and called for a “radical thinking” of antibiotic consumption.
At Randox, our pioneering R&D teams have developed a revolutionary swab test for respiratory infections which will help to reduce the unnecessary prescription of antibiotics. Earlier this year, Public Health England reported that 59% of people who visited their GP with a sore throat were prescribed antibiotics, in spite of only 13% actually needing them.
The new Randox swab test indicates the cause of the infection and whether a patient needs antibiotics or not, by rapidly detecting and identifying the cause of 21 respiratory infections in just 5 hours
The test assists the clinician in prescribing the appropriate antibiotic.
John Lamont, Lead Scientist at Randox Laboratories, said;
“Current diagnostic testing for respiratory infections takes at least 36 hours to confirm the nature of an infection, and they cannot name and categorise infections as bacterial or viral in the way our new respiratory test can.”
This test, if widely adopted, could allow medical practitioners to make the correct treatment choice on the same day as examination and before patients have already begun a precautionary course of inefficient antibiotics. It would also have additional efficiency savings for the NHS, by eliminating the need for lengthy microbiology lab tests and unnecessarily prescribing drugs which are not needed.
This new rapid and accurate test will give clinicians confidence in their diagnosis of respiratory infections and will allow for quicker treatment if necessary, which benefits patient outcomes. By reducing the prescription of unnecessary antibiotics, we can limit their use only for when they are truly needed.
The test is also available as a Randox Health Cough, Cold & Flu offering, and can be carried out by booking an appointment with Randox Health at our clinics in Crumlin, Holywood or London, or by arranging the mobile clinic to visit you at your home or place of work.
Book an appointment with one of our clinics, or arrange the mobile clinic, by phoning 0800 2545 130 or by clicking here.
For further information about the Randox Respiratory Infection Array please contact the Randox PR team by email: randoxpr@randox.com or phone 028 9442 2413
RIQAS Inter-Laboratory Group Report
A unique group reporting facility is available allowing laboratory groups or chains to effectively monitor the performance of satellite sites.
All laboratories within a group will receive their RIQAS sample packs, analyse the samples, return results to RIQAS and receive their individual RIQAS reports as normal. In addition to this a separate group report will be sent to the group manager or supervisor allowing relative performance of all laboratories within the group to be assessed.
RIQAS EQA Reports
For each laboratory in the group, the interlaboratory group report displays the %Dev for the last 10 samples along with the RM%Dev. The %Dev for each laboratory is plotted on a user-friendly, colour coded chart for instant identification of poor performing labs.
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