Every hotspot for drug trafficking and drug use in Victoria and Greater Melbourne revealed

A person is arrested on drug charges every 45 minutes, as the scourge hits a four-year high in Victoria. And new data reveals which LGAs are making meth their drug of choice.

Drug dealing, trafficking and possession has hit a four-year high in Victoria with new data revealing the suburbs that are choosing meth over a joint.

There were 32,264 drug offences recorded in the year to December 2024 — a 7.5 per cent increase from 2023 — according to data published by the Victorian Crime Statistics Agency on Thursday.

On average, 36 drug offenders were caught each day in 2024, up from 33 during 2023.

Unsurprisingly, drug dealers and users were nabbed most frequently in Melbourne’s CBD, followed by Geelong, Dandenong, Casey and Hume.

More dealers, traffickers and growers were also caught last year, with 11 alleged offenders caught daily.

Victoria’s top drugs of choice were cannabis and meth which recorded 9051 and 7929 offences respectively.

While cannabis was favoured by most of the state, meth was more popular for inner city drug users and pushers including in Stonnington, Port Phillip, Yarra, Merri-bek and Moonee Valley.

Meth offences also beat out cannabis offences in Geelong, swathes of the south eastern suburbs and in the far west of the state.

Find out what drugs are in your local area.

Cannabis

Victorian stoners and pot dealers recorded the most drug offences, accounting for 28 per cent of all drug crime.

Casey had the most cannabis dealing and trafficking offences, followed by Brimbank and Melbourne.

More stoners were caught than users of any other drug.

Methylamphetamine

Meth was the narcotic of choice for Victoria’s dealers and traffickers, with criminals being caught 1264 times peddling the drug.

Meth dealers were caught 149 times in Bendigo, 64 more times than Melbourne dealers.

Users were nabbed 6680 times, with the most being caught in Melbourne and Geelong.

Bendigo, Shepparton, Hume and Darebin were also possession hotspots.

GHB

GHB took out the bronze medal for the state’s most popular drug, with 2000 dealing and possession offences recorded in Victoria.

More than 75 per cent of recorded offences were possession charges, with users being caught in Melbourne, Geelong, Hume and Casey.

Cocaine

The state’s pumping night-life hotspots attracted the most cocaine dealers, with 47 dealers being caught in Melbourne’s CBD.

30 more were nabbed in Port Phillip and Stonnington, home of the iconic Chapel St night-life precinct.

Cocaine users were also caught most frequently in these party hotspots.

Prescription

Geelong closely trails Melbourne as the region selling and abusing the most prescription drugs.

4290 possession offences were recorded statewide, but only 191 dealers were caught.

Other hotspots for prescription drug users included Dandenong, Hume and Casey.

Ecstasy

Similarly to cocaine, ecstasy also pumped through Melbourne, Stonnington and Port Phillip’s night-life destinations.

757 possession offences were recorded statewide, 28 per cent of which were recorded in those three local government areas.

Geelong and Frankston also recorded 46 and 38 ecstasy possession offences.

151 dealers and traffickers were caught with the drug, with the majority being caught in user hotspots like Melbourne and Port Phillip.