Drug bureau chief bemoans cocaine use ‘spiralling out of control’

COCAINE use is soaring in Sydney — with a 50 per cent jump in people caught using or in possession in just the past two years — while use of another nasty drug has started to fall.

Police hold a 30-year-old man in the Sydney CBD after allegedly locating cocaine and more than $2500 in cash in a raid last year. Source: Police Media

COCAINE use is soaring in Sydney — with a 50 per cent jump in people caught using or in possession of the drug in just the past two years — while ice use has started to fall.

The NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics revelations come two days after The Daily Telegraph reported an annual increase in use of old-fashioned heroin over each of the past five years.

Cocaine use is spiralling out of control, with more than 1000 busts of people using or dealing the drug in the first three months of this year, ­indi­cating that this year’s figures could be the highest on record.

Seized packets pile up from a record-breaking NSW cocaine haul worth more than $322 million.

Bureau director Don Weatherburn said the rise in the use of cocaine­ was “frightening”.

“I wouldn’t use the word endemic­, only because its use seem largely isolated to the city and eastern suburbs, but it means there is a lot of cocaine around and that increases the profits of organised crime,’’ Dr Weatherburn said.

Bricks of cocaine from a $60 million haul in which six men were arrested in connection to an alleged plan to use an ex-Japanese whaling vessel for importation.

Officers bring ashore some of the cocaine found in a bust worth more than $245 million on Lake Macquarie last year. Picture: Peter Lorimer

State Crime Command Drug and Firearms Squad commander Detective Superintendent Peter McErlain said that, despite a number of large cocaine seizures in the past year, “organised criminal groups continue to be motivated by an unwavering demand”.

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“NSW has the highest consumption of cocaine in Australia, and this is the most important issue to be add­ressed,” he said.

Possession of ice on the other hand has dropped by 7 per cent in two years and dealing is down by 26 per cent.

“Police have got very good at finding and dismantling clandestine drug labs,” Dr Weatherburn said.

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“The figures are also supported­ by a decrease in overdoses being presented at emergency departments.”

A 26-year-old woman was arrested in central Sydney and later faced multiple drug-related charges last year. Picture: Police Media

Australian Federal Police speak at a press conference announcing the seizure of 313kg of crystal methamphetamine — ice.

Dealing of ice is down 26 per cent in two years.

The leap in cocaine use was the major spike in the data, while sexual assaults also ­increased in most parts of the state, particularly in Ryde (37.7 per cent) the inner-southwest (32.1 per cent), Sydney City and inner-south (28.0 per cent), Baulkham Hills and Hawkesbury (26.7 per cent) and Blacktown (10.2 per cent).

And while the rate of crime overall was down, there were other concerning spikes including unarmed robberies rising­ 40.9 per cent in the inner-west and 23.2 per cent in the southwest.