Prevalence and Trends in Methamphetamine Use in Australia

"In 2013, about 1.3 million (7.0%) people had used meth/amphetamines in their lifetime and 400,000 (2.1%) had done so in the last 12 months (Online Table 5.5). Males were more likely than females to have used meth/amphetamines in their lifetime (8.6% and 5.3%, respectively) or in the last 12 months (2.7% and 1.5% respectively). In addition:
"• people aged 30–39 were slightly more likely than those in other age groups to have ever used meth/amphetamines (14.7%), while people aged 20–29 were more likely to have recently used meth/amphetamines (5.8%) (Online Table 5.7)
"• meth/amphetamine users are getting older; the average age of users was 24 in 2001, compared with 28 in 2013 (Online Table 5.16) and age of first use was also older, increasing from 17.9 in 2010 to 18.6 in 2013 among young people aged 14–24 (Online Table 5.10)
"• most people who were offered or had the opportunity to use meth/amphetamines didn’t use it—5.8% of people aged 14 or older were offered meth/amphetamines and 2.1% had used it (online tables 5.4 and 5.12)
"• among people aged 20–29, 14.1% had been offered or had the opportunity to use the drug, and 5.8% had used it (online tables 5.18 and S5.28)."