Meth on a high while ecstasy is on the come down

See how the illicit drug of choice has changed over the past two decades, and how their prices have too.

See how the illicit drug of choice has changed over the past two decades, and how their prices have too.

Ecstasy (aka MDMA) is losing popularity among drug users and experts are worried. 

Cocaine and methamphetamines like ice are on the rise, according to the Australian National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) at UNSW.

NDARC interviewed 700 people who regularly use ecstasy and other illicit stimulants for the annual drug trends report.

"You might say, why would you be worried about MDMA (use) going down? And the main reason you might want to be worried about it is if it's being replaced with some other behaviour that we might think is more harmful," NDARC Director Professor Michael Farrell said.

"Particularly if the strength of (ecstasy) goes down, they might be turning to other drugs like methamphetamine to supply with the notion of both having it (available) and possibly being more profitable."

Disruptions to social events like festivals during the pandemic are the reason for the dramatic drop in ecstasy use, although its popularity has been declining since reporting began in 2003 and is now at its lowest level.

"While the lockdown has gone away, I don't think the social behaviours are quite back to baseline yet," Professor Farrell said.

Interviewees, whose average age was 25, said MDMA was more difficult to find and of lower strength over the past six months, which was likely due to supply chain issues for the mostly imported drug.

The price of ecstasy increased over the past year, with the cost of a gram of crystal and powder, the most common forms of MDMA, up about $50.

The use of methamphetamine, which is known as 'ice' in crystal form and 'speed' in powder form, significantly increased between 2021 and 2022, the annual report found. The most obvious change was in the Sydney sample, up from 15% in 2021 to 29% in 2022.

He said if users were moving from MDMA to methamphetamine, "it would be a thing we should be concerned about" but the current research does not validate that link. 

Methamphetamine use more broadly has been declining since at least 2003.

The report also showed that non-prescribed cannabis use among these drug users was at its lowest since 2008, while the cocaine market has expanded significantly over the last two years.

Prof Farrell said young people were drinking less and starting to drink alcohol later in life, but drug use wasn't increasing or decreasing.

"There are changes and we don't really understand what is driving some of those changes ... It's not a simple replacement."

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