ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the survey data that is currently available to policy makers in the UK. It considers the British Crime Survey, which is the primary source of UK drug use information, and focuses on serious limitations to what it can provide. The chapter also considers whether the information generated from just few drug use questions can allow sufficient analysis of important issues such as the initiation into drug abuse and the problem of escalating misuse. It explores the relationship between alcohol abuse and drug misuse, and the pattern of drug use across income groups. The prevention of illicit drug misuse has become a serious political issue. Public concern about the connection between drug use and crime, particularly property crime, has kept the drugs debate high on the media agenda. Research into the social and economic determinants of drug misuse tends to be characterised by a problematic lack of appropriate data.
