Speed use rising among youth in strife

As amphetamine use soars, it's being increasingly detected in younger people in strife with the law.

And although use of methamphetamines, such as ice, wasn't even detected in police detainees before 2011-12, it's now widespread.

The latest round of the Australian Institute of Criminology's survey of drugs among police detainees found 37 per cent tested positive for amphetamines.

That's an increase of 13 per cent since 2011-12 and the highest recorded rate in the monitoring program's 16-year history.

Methamphetamine was identified in 23 per cent of urine samples from detainees in Adelaide, 24 per cent in Bankstown, 34 per cent in Brisbane, 37 per cent in East Perth and 52 per cent in Kings Cross.

The highest rate of amphetamine use was recorded among detainees at the Kings Cross police station in Sydney, where almost two-thirds tested positive, followed by Surry Hills (43 per cent) and East Perth (39 per cent).

The Drug Use Monitoring in Australia program was launched in 1999 to collect data on prevalence of drug use at the law enforcement frontline.

Over the years it has charted the decline of heroin and the rise of methamphetamines.

Data is collected at selected police stations in Sydney, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane twice a year. Those who volunteer to participate are interviewed about drug use and also provide a urine sample.

In the 2013-14 study, 3456 were interviewed, with an average age of 32 and 81 per cent were male. In that time period almost half had been charged with an offence and 21 per cent had been released from prison.

This time around, 29 per cent were in custody for offences of violence and 26 per cent for breaching a court order.

Cannabis remains the most prevalent drug, detected in 46 per cent of detainees. Heroin was detected in just eight per cent of those tested and cocaine in two per cent.