Drug use in Australia on the rise: Spike in meth, coke among known users

Australia’s ice market is booming with cut-price meth leading experts to warm of an impending health disaster with services already stretched.

The drug Ice is on the rise with plentiful supply and cut-price deals potential leading to a health disaster, a new report has found.

Cocaine is also booming among known drug users with the country’s various lockdowns seemingly failing to dampen the mood for the part drug.

UNSW’s Sydney’s National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) has released two reports showing illegal drug trends among known users across Australia.

The first, the National Ecstasy and related Drugs Reporting System (EDRS), is based on interviews with 774 people from Australian capital cities who regularly use illicit stimulants.

The second report, based on the Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS), references interviews with 888 people in Australian capital cities who injected illicit drugs at least once monthly in the last six months.

Meth use is on the rise which is of huge concern to experts. Generic picture: iStock

Despite Covid impacting almost all aspects of our daily lives, the results shows increases in cocaine, ketamine and meth among users.

In particular cocaine use rocketed with 80% of those questioned responding that they had used the drug in the last 12 months.

That compares to 68% from the previous 12 months.

It is now at its highest per capita percentage observed since the national study began in 2003.

Dr Rachel Sutherland, program lead for drug trends, said it was difficult to determine what drove the increase but the key may lie in availability.

“Back in 2003, 21% of the EDRS sample reported that cocaine was easy or very easy to obtain, and, in 2021, 77% reported that cocaine was easy or very easy to obtain,” Dr Sutherland said.

Ketamine use jumped from 43% in 2020 to 52% in 2021. However, frequency of usage remained low at a median of three days in the past 6 months.

Use of non-prescribed pharmaceuticals increased, jumping from 39% in 2020 to 46% in 2021. As did hallucinogenic mushroom use from 30% in 2020 to 45% in 2021.

Dr Sutherland found anecdotal evidence from another study that some people increased mushroom use in the last lockdown because “they were able to forage for and use at home”.

E-cigarette use saw a huge increase from 39% in 2020 to 58% in 2021.

Perhaps of most concern for those behind the reports is the increase in meth use, as seen in the IDRS report.

Cocaine is also on the rise among known users according to the study

In 2021, 80% of participants reported methamphetamine use, up from 72% in 2020.

“The increase in methamphetamine use is extremely worrying, as are the findings that frequency of use increased from a median of 48 days in 2020, to 72 days in 2021,” Dr Sutherland said.

The report also found that the cost of a point of crystal methamphetamine (‘ice’) decreased from $100 in 2020 to $50 in 2021.

There was also worryingly an increase in participants stating availability to be ‘easy’ or ‘very easy’.

“Last year, our findings seemed to indicate that there was a disruption to the methamphetamine market,” Dr Sutherland said. “It appears that the market may have since recovered, although there are likely to be jurisdictional differences and ongoing fluctuations.

“We are concerned that this potential recovery of the methamphetamine market, combined with increases in use, could lead to an increase in hospitalisations, and may also result in increased treatment demand.

One of the theories behind the increase in meth use is the availability of the drug. Pictured is a generic image of a meth lab. Picture: iStock.

“Given that many of these services are already at capacity, greater investment in methamphetamine treatment and support is critical.”

However, not all substances in the reports saw an increase in use.

The was a sharp decline in the use of all forms of ecstasy with capsules use decreasing from 83% in 2020 to 70% in 2021, pill use declining from 53% in 2020 to 42% in 2021 and powder use declining from 35% in 2020 to 26% in 2021.

All forms of ecstasy saw a price hike in 2021 while there were declines in perceived purity and availability suggesting a disruption in the 2021 MDMA market when compared to the 2020 stats.