More Aussies being charged with illicit drug offences: stats

The number of Australians being tried for illicit drug offences has risen to its highest level in the past five years, according to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Tuesday.

Almost 60,000 Australians were brought in front of the courts during 2014-15, up more than 50 percent on the same figure from the 2010-11 level.

William Milne from the ABS's Crime and Justice Statistics division said the proportion of court cases involving illicit drugs was continuing to rise.

"There were 59,341 defendants finalized with a principal offence of illicit drug offences in 2014-15, an increase of 51 per cent (20,032 defendants) on 2010-11 figures," Milne said in a statement released on Tuesday.

"One in ten (10 percent) defendants were finalized in Australian state and territory criminal courts for Illicit drug offences in 2014-15, compared to seven per cent of defendants in 2010-11.

"In 2014-15, three-quarters (75 percent) of defendants finalized for illicit drug offences were aged less than 40 years."

Milne said that almost one in five cases involving illicit substances were trafficking cases, while 60 percent were possession or use cases.

He added that 89 percent of those brought before the courts were found guilty of their charge, with 60 percent ordered to pay a fine averaging at 290 U.S dollars, while just seven percent of cases were deemed serious enough for incarceration.

Also released as part of the statistics, 588,167 cases were tried overall in Australia, with the largest proportion of those being vehicle and traffic related offences, which stood at 35 percent.