Key findings from the ‘Australians’ Drug Use: Adapting to Pandemic Threats’ (ADAPT) Study Wave 2

The National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre has recently released the “Australians’ Drug Use: Adapting to Pandemic Threats - Wave 2” (ADAPT) study which was implemented to explore short and long term impacts of covid-19 on Australian’s who use illicit drugs. The first wave looked at changes in substance use between the period of April 2020 - June 2020. The second wave has followed up participants from the initial data collection, with wave 2 data collected from late June to September 2020.

Between February 2020 and wave 1, there was an increase in people receiving their drugs via delivery, this has since decreased between wave 1 and wave 2.  Purchasing substances online (via surface website or dark web markets) increased only slightly from 5% in wave 1, to 6% in wave 2.  Drug related treatment seeking saw a small increase from wave 1 (4%) to wave 2 (5%), however there was a larger increase in participants accessing mental health services from wave 1 (39%) to wave 2 (47%). 

Go to “Australians’ Drug Use: Adapting to Pandemic Threats - Wave 2” (ADAPT)