Possession of dangerous drugs

Download the spotlight (PDF, 671.7 KB)

This report is part of the Sentencing Spotlight series. These publications present statistics on sentencing outcomes for offences finalised in Queensland courts.

Our Sentencing Spotlight on possession of dangerous drugs, defined under section 9 of the Drugs Misuse Act 1986, provides insight into cases sentenced between July 2005 and June 2016.

Our research found:

  • a total of 151,186 offenders were sentenced for possession of a dangerous drug — 98,414 offenders as their most serious offence (MSO) and 52,772 offenders had another offence as their MSO
  • the average age of offenders at sentencing was 30.7 years
  • most offenders were male (78.8%)
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander offenders made up 9.4% of total offenders
  • the majority of offenders pleaded guilty (97.1%)
  • the majority of offenders received a non-custodial sentence (93.2%), of which 56.4% received a fine ($554.60 average)
  • the number of drug possession offences as MSO more than doubled from 2005–06 to 2015–16.

Read the media release

Technical paper

Our technical paper explains important terminology, data sources, counting rules and methodologies for our research publications.
Download technical paper (PDF, 139.3 KB)