Prevalence of Illegal Pharmaceutical Use in Australia

"• In 2013, 4.7% of Australians aged 14 or older had misused a pharmaceutical in the previous 12 months, which was a significant rise from 4.2% in 2010. This increase was only significant for males (from 4.1% in 2010 to 5.1% in 2013 and from 4.2% to 4.4% for females).
"• The rise in pharmaceutical misuse was mainly due to an increase in males in their 30s (4.5% in 2010 to 6.9% in 2013) and females in their 40s (3.1% in 2010 to 4.5% in 2013) misusing these drugs.
"• People aged 20–29 (5.8%) and 30–39 (5.3%) were most likely to have misused pharmaceuticals in the previous 12 months.
"• Pain-killers/analgesics (3.3%) were the most commonly misused pharmaceutical drug type and over–the-counter pain-killers (78%) were more commonly misused than prescription pain-killers (51%).
"• The proportion of people who had ever misused a pharmaceutical drug rose to 11.4% in 2013, up from 7.4% in 2010, the first increase in lifetime use since 2001."