South African Community Epidemiology Network on Drug Use (SACENDU): alcohol and drug abuse trends: January-June 2001

Abstract

The SACENDA Project, an alcohol and other drug (AOD) sentinel surveillance system operational in Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth and Gauteng (Johannesburg / Pretoria. The system, initiated in 1996, monitors trends in AOD use and associated consequences on a six monthly bases using multi-source information from specialist treatment centres (50+), psychiatric hospitals, mortuaries, trauma units, the Police (SA Narcotics Bureau, Organised Crime Unites & Forensic Science Laboratories), and from research conducted in schools and with sex workers, street children, persons attending primary health care clinics, arrestees, and persons attending rave parties. Unless stated otherwise, the findings relate to the 1st half of 2001.