Wastewater testing exposes Tasmania’s drugs shame

The latest analysis of our wastewater has revealed which drugs Tasmanians are most commonly using and how much we are taking.

TASMANIANS are among the highest users of cannabis, oxycodone and fentanyl in the nation, a new report has found.

The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission has published the sixth report of the National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program.

The report uses the detection of traces of licit and illicit drugs in wastewater to estimate the level of their usage in the community.

It estimated that Australians consumed around 10 tonnes of methylamphetamine, four tonnes of cocaine, 1.1 tonnes of MDMA and more than 700kg of heroin in the year to August 2018.

“Of the estimated $9.3 billion Australians spent on these four drugs last year, methylamphetamine accounted for 78 per cent of the money spent,” agency CEO Michael Phelan said.

Methylamphetamine use is on the rise in Tasmania.

The report found in Tasmania, the use of nicotine, alcohol, cocaine, MDA and heroin fell between April and August last year, while the use of methylamphetamine, MDMA, oxycodone and fentanyl rose.

“Oxycodone and fentanyl, which are both prescription pharmaceutical substances with abuse potential, had elevated consumption levels at several sites, noticeably across Tasmania,” the report said.

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“Tasmania had the highest estimated average capital city and regional consumption of oxycodone in August 2018.

“The extent of fentanyl use was very variable across the nation.

“Similar to oxycodone, regional average consumption exceeded that of capital cities by a large margin. Some regional sites in almost every state and territory had high use. In Tasmania, the capital city use was also well above the national average, matching regional use.”

Tasmania had the highest estimated average capital city and regional consumption of oxycodone in August 2018 according to the report.

Oxycodone and fentanyl are opioid pharmaceuticals with therapeutic application, but are also diverted to the illicit market.

The report noted that Tasmanians had the highest overall levels of cannabis use and Hobart had the highest weekly consumption of tobacco.

Alcohol use was also above the national average — around two standard drinks per person per day.

The report noted that the figure could be an underestimate as sampling wasn’t carried out at weekends.

The report covers 56 per cent of the population, which equates to about 13 million people, with 58 wastewater treatment plants across Australia participating in the collection of the wastewater samples, covering 13 substances.

Originally published as Wastewater testing exposes Tasmania’s drugs shame