The effect of methamphetamine and heroin price on polydrug use: A behavioural economics analysis in Sydney, Australia

International Journal of Drug Policy

Volumn 21, Issue 5, 2010, Pages 381-389

  Chalmers, Jenny ^a   Bradford, Deborah ^b   Jones, Craig ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES   (Australia)

^b NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research   (Australia)

Author keywords

Behavioural economic analysis; Heroin; Methamphetamine; Polydrug use; Price elasticity; Supply side drug law enforcement

Indexed keywords

ALCOHOL; BENZODIAZEPINE; CANNABIS; COCAINE; DIAMORPHINE; ILLICIT DRUG; METHAMPHETAMINE; OPIATE;

ARTICLE; AUSTRALIA; BEHAVIOR; CONTROLLED STUDY; COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS; DRUG COST; DRUG DEPENDENCE; DRUG USE; ELASTICITY; HUMAN; LAW ENFORCEMENT; MULTIPLE DRUG ABUSE; PRIORITY JOURNAL;

ADOLESCENT; ADULT; AMPHETAMINE-RELATED DISORDERS; AUSTRALIA; COMMERCE; FEMALE; HEROIN; HEROIN DEPENDENCE; HUMANS; LAW ENFORCEMENT; MALE; MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES; METHAMPHETAMINE; MIDDLE AGED; QUESTIONNAIRES; STREET DRUGS; SUBSTANCE ABUSE, INTRAVENOUS; SUBSTANCE-RELATED DISORDERS; YOUNG ADULT;

EID: 77955841567     PISSN: 09553959     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2010.06.002     Document Type: Article

References (54)

1. Australian Institute of Health Welfare 2007 National drug strategy household survey: Detailed findings. Drug statistics series no. 22. Cat. no. PHE 107 2008, AIHW, Canberra.
2. Becker G.S., Grossman M., Murphy K.M. Rational addiction and the effect of price on consumption. Economics of Drugs 1991, 81(2):237-241.
3. Bretteville-Jensen A.L., Sutton M. Under the influence of the market: An applied study of illicitly selling and consuming heroin. Discussion paper 1996, Centre for Health Economics, University of York, York, United Kingdom.
4. Bretteville-Jensen A.L. Gender, heroin consumption and economic behaviour. Health Economics and Econometrics 1999, 8:379-389.
5. Bretteville-Jensen A.L., Biorn E. Heroin consumption, prices and addiction: Evidence from self-reported panel data. Scandinavian Journal of Economics 2003, 105:661-679.
6. Bright, D. A., & Ritter, A. (in press). Retail price as an outcome measure for the effectiveness of drug law enforcement. International Journal of Drug Policy.
7. Byqvist S. Patterns of drug use among drug misusers in Sweden: Gender differences. Substance Use and Misuse 2006, 41:1817-1835.
8. Cameron A., Trivedi P. Regression analysis of count data 1998, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
9. Caulkins J.P. Estimating elasticities of demand for cocaine and heroin with data from the drug use forecasting system, final report 1995, United States Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, NCJ 173823, Washington, DC.
10. Caulkins J.P. Drug prices and emergency department mentions for cocaine and heroin. American Journal of Public Health 2001, 91(9):1446-1448.
11. Caulkins J.P. Price and purity analysis for illicit drug: Data and conceptual issues. Drug and Alcohol Dependence 2007, 90:S61-S68.
12. Cole J.C., Goudie A.J., Field M., Loverseed A., Charton S. The effects of perceived quality on the behavioural economics of alcohol, methamphetamine, cannabis, cocaine, and ecstasy purchases. Drug and Alcohol Dependence 2008, 94:183-190.
13. Costa Storti C., De Grauwe P. The cocaine and heroin markets in the era of globalization and drug reduction policies. International Journal of Drug Policy 2009, 20:488-549.
14. Darke S., Hall W. Levels and correlates of polydrug use among heroin users and regular methamphetamine users. Drug and Alcohol Dependence 1995, 39:231-235.
15. Darke S., Ross J., Teesson M. The Australian Treatment Outcome Study (ATOS): What have we learnt about treatment for heroin dependence?. Drug and Alcohol Review 2007, 26:49-54.
16. Dave D. Illicit drug use among arrestees and drug prices. NBER working paper 10648 2004, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.
17. Dave D. The effects of cocaine and heroin price on drug-related emergency department visits. Journal of Health Economics 2006, 25:311-333.
18. Degenhardt L., Bohnert K.M., Anthony J.C. Assessment of cocaine and other drug dependence in the general population: " Gated" versus " ungated" approaches. Drug and Alcohol Dependence 2008, 93:227-232.
19. Degenhardt L., Reuter P., Collins L., Hall W. Evaluating explanations of the Australian 'heroin shortage'. Addiction 2005, 100:459-469.
20. González-Sáiz F., Domingo-Salvany A., Barrio G., Sánchez-Niubó A., Brugal M.T., de la Fuente L., et al. Severity of Dependence Scale as a diagnostic tool for heroin and cocaine dependence. European Addiction Research 2009, 15:87-93.
21. Gossop M., Best D., Marsden J., Strang J. Test-retest reliability of the Severity of Dependence Scale. Addiction 1997, 92:353.
22. Gossop M., Darke S., Griffiths P., Hando J., Powis B., Hall W., et al. The Severity of Dependence Scale (SDS): Psychometric properties of the SDS in English and Australian samples of heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine users. Addiction 1995, 90:607-614.
23. Gossop M., Marsden J., Stewart D., Kidd T. The national treatment outcome research study (NTORS): 4-5 year follow-up results. Addiction 2003, 98:291-303.
24. Goudie A.J., Sumnall H.R., Field M., Clayton H., Cole J.C. The effects of price and perceived quality on the behavioural economics of alcohol, amphetamine, cannabis, cocaine and ecstasy purchases. Drug and Alcohol Dependence 2007, 89:107-115.
25. Greene W. Econometric analysis 2008, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. 6th ed.
26. Grossman M., Chaloupka F.J. The demand for cocaine by young adults: A rational addiction approach. Journal of Health Economics 1998, 17:427-474.
27. Grossman M., Chaloupka F., Shim K. Illegal drug use and public policy. Health Affairs 2002, 21:134-145.
28. Jofre-Bonet M., Petry N.M. Trading apples for oranges? Results of an experiment on the effects of heroin and cocaine price changes on addicts' polydrug use. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 2008, 66:281-311.
29. Jones, C., Weatherburn, D., Freeman, D., Matthew, R. (2005). Psycho-stimulant use, health and criminal activity among injecting heroin users. National drug law enforcement research fund monograph no. 10. Canberra, Australia: National Drug Law Enforcement Research Fund.
30. Kennedy P. A guide to econometrics 2008, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. 6th ed.
31. McBride O., Teesson M., Slade T., Hasin D., Degenhardt L., Baillie A. Further evidence of differences in substance use and dependence between Australia and the United States. Drug and Alcohol Dependence 2009, 100:258-264.
32. McKetin R., Kelly E., McLaren J., Proudfoot H. Impaired physical health among methamphetamine users in comparison with the general population: The role of methamphetamine dependence and opioid use. Drug and Alcohol Review 2008, 27:482-489.
33. Maher L., Li J., Jalaludin B., Wand H., Jayasuriya R., Dixon D., et al. Impact of a reduction in heroin availability on patterns of drug use, risk behaviour and incidence of hepatitis C virus infection in injecting drug users in New South Wales, Australia. Drug and Alcohol Dependence 2007, 89:244-250.
34. Manski C.F., Pepper J.V., Petrie C.V. Informing America's policy on illegal drugs: What we don't know keeps hurting us 2001, National Academy Press, Washington, DC.
35. Pacula L.R. Does increasing the beer tax reduce marijuana consumption?. Journal of Health Economics 1998, 17(5):557-585.
36. Petry N.M. Effects of increasing income on polydrug use: A comparison of heroin, cocaine and alcohol abusers. Addiction 2000, 95:705-717.
37. Petry N.M., Bickel W.K. Polydrug abuse in heroin addicts: A behavioural economic analysis. Addiction 1998, 93:321-335.
38. Phillips B., Burns L. New South Wales drug trends 2008: Findings from the illicit drug reporting system (IDRS). Australian drug trends series, no. 20 2009, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, Sydney.
39. Rafert, G. (2007). Illicit drug policy in the United States: Will increased drug prices reduce use and drug-related crime? Unpublished manuscript. Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California at Berkley, accessed 1 December, 2009, http://are.berkeley.edu/~rafert/docs/Rafert_Job_Market_Paper.pdf.
40. Roddy J., Greenwald M. An economic analysis of income and expenditures by heroin-using research volunteers. Substance Use and Misuse 2009, 44:1503-1518.
41. Saffer H., Chaloupka F.J. The demand for illicit drugs. Economic Enquiry 1999, 37(3):401-411.
42. Saffer H., Chaloupka F.J. Demographic differentials in the demand for alcohol and illicit drugs. The economic analysis of substance use and abuse: An integration of econometric and behavioral economic research 1999, 187-211. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL. F.J. Chaloupka, M. Grossman, W.K. Bickel, H. Saffer (Eds.).
43. Silverman L.P., Spruill N.L. Urban crime and the price of heroin. Journal of Urban Economics 1977, 4:80-103.
44. Snowball, L., Moffatt, S., Weatherburn, D., & Burgess, M. (2008), Did the heroin shortage increase methamphetamine use? Crime and justice bulletin no. 114. Sydney: NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research.
45. Stolzenberg L., D'Alessio S.J. A multilevel analysis of the effect of cocaine price on cocaine use among arrestees. Journal of Criminal Justice 2003, 31:185-195.
46. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Treatment episode data set (TEDS) 1995-2005: National admissions to substance abuse treatment services. 2007, Department of Health and Human Services, Rockville, MD.
47. Sumnall H.R., Tyler E., Wagstaff G.F., Cole J.C. A behavioural economic analysis of alcohol, amphetamine, cocaine and ecstasy purchases by polysubstance misusers. Drug Alcohol and Alcohol Dependence 2004, 76:93-99.
48. Teesson M., Baillie A., Lynskey M., Manor B., Degenhardt L. Substance use, dependence and treatment seeking in the United States and Australia: A cross-national comparison. Drug and Alcohol Dependence 2006, 81:149-155.
49. Topp L., Mattick R.P. Choosing a cut-off on the Severity of Dependence Scale (SDS) for methamphetamine users. Addiction 1997, 92:839-845.
50. Tyndall M. Avoiding simplistic interpretations: Comment on Degenhardt et al. 2005. Addiction 2005, 100:923-924.
51. Weatherburn D., Jones C., Freeman K., Makkai T. Supply control and harm reduction: Lessons from the Australian heroin 'drought'. Addiction 2003, 98:83-91.
52. Weatherburn D., Lind B. The impact of law enforcement activity on a heroin market. Addiction 1997, 92(5):557-569.
53. Williamson A., Darke S., Ross J., Teesson M. The effect of persistence of cocaine use on 12-month outcomes for the treatment of heroin dependence. Drug and Alcohol Dependence 2006, 81:293-300.
54. Wood E., Tyndall M.W., Spittal P.M., Li K., Anis A.H., Hogg R.S., et al. Impact of supply-side policies for control of illicit drugs in the face of the AIDS and overdose epidemics: Investigation of a massive heroin seizure. Canadian Medical Association Journal 2003, 168:165-169.