Cocaine use up by 20 per cent in a year as guards patrol toilets to stop use
Melbourne nightclubs are deploying security in bathrooms to listen for “suspicious noises” as cocaine use across the state spikes. This is the brazen face of our cocaine culture and it includes the rich and famous.
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Victorians are blowing $5.5 million a week on cocaine amid a boom in the drug’s use by the rich and famous.
Some nightclubs across the city are resorting to deploying security guards in toilet facilities, trying to stop groups snorting together and listening out for suspicious noises from inside cubicles.
Police arrested almost 600 people for cocaine use last year — up from 415 the year before.
Industry figures say cocaine is overwhelmingly the drug of choice for A-listers and reality TV stars at high-end hotspots, which include restaurants, bars and clubs.
The Spring Racing Carnival is referred to as the “cocaine carnival” in some circles.
Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission data shows 819kg of the drug was consumed in the state last year, a jump of 20 per cent on the previous 12 months.
Based on a price of $350 per gram, consumers have spent $525 million on the drug in Victoria in the past two years.
Among the biggest consumers are some household names from entertainment and sporting spheres. There is also heavy demand in the nightclub, business and legal communities.
One nightclub industry source said the potential profits for traffickers operating inside venues were enormous.
That businessman said there had been nights when dealers were operating where a teller machine transaction check would find as many as 100 withdrawals of $350, the price of a deal of cocaine.
“They are affluent, they are up themselves, but they never f--- up,” the operator said. “It’s part of the culture.”
Another hospitality industry source, who is linked to several clubs in Melbourne, said: “It’s rife and it’s just everywhere — people go to a classy restaurant for some wine and they are in the toilets using cocaine.”
The source said cocaine use was “a status thing”.
“You get these new overnight celebrities and the reality TV stars and they just gravitate to it and don’t care that people know they are doing it,” he said.
The source said security tried to stop groups going into cubicles together as “it was obvious” what would happen, but there was often backlashes, especially from females.
“They feel like they are being watched and say, ‘I just want to talk to my friends in private’ … then it’s hard to say no. But we know what goes on,” he said.
One police source said: “There’s a fair bit of it out in the general community, but the bulk of it goes up the noses of the affluent nightclub crew and other high-disposable income types. A lot of high-end, organised crime types love it.”
A source said one entertainment organisation had bought almost 100 one-gram lots of the drug for distribution to its guests at a major event.
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In another example of brazen use, a corporate leader made heavy weather of hosting a prestigious gathering, with guests noticing cocaine residue around her nose.
Concerns have also been raised over another celebrity’s involvement with a violent Melbourne underworld figure in recent times. Both are understood to be heavy users.
One well-connected source said a “blizzard” of cocaine annually hit the Spring Racing Carnival.
Most sales occurred in the Birdcage and corporate marquees, according to a security source.
“They’re as jumpy as the horses by the end of the day,” another source said.
One champion jockey is even said to have snorted cocaine off one of the sport’s greatest trophies after booting home the winner.