Aussies lead in narcotic demand
A DRUG-related arrest is being made every 3½ minutes across Australia with online drug buying more than doubling and the black economy of seized narcotics alone now worth more than $3.5bn a year. The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission’s latest snapshot of drug consumption nationally shows new records set for every drug type found by police, with a seizure now being made every five minutes. But according to what goes through our toilets, authorities only find a fraction of what we are consuming, reaffirming Australia’s dubious honour as a global drug-using capital particularly for ice and cocaine. Over the past decade, during which time the Australian population increased about 13 per cent, the number of national illicit drug seizures increased 77 per cent, the weight of illicit drugs seized nationally increased 241 per cent and the number of national illicit drug arrests increased 80 per cent, with 153,377 arrests in 2018–19. The ACIC’s national waste water monitoring data showed the weight of cocaine seized equated to just 35 per cent of the total estimated weight of cocaine needed to meet national demand. For heroin it was just 21 per cent, amphetamines seized equated to 38 per cent needed to meet demand, while MDMA was 70 per cent. The arrest rate made every 3½ minutes was an increase from the four minutes in the 2017-18 report.
According to the report, the ability to buy and sell illicit substances online was a “resilient feature” of the drugs market with “significant potential for expansion”.
“International and domestic mail streams are critical to the importation and/or distribution of illicit drugs purchased online, with Europe a key source region,” the report concludes.
NSW remained the nation’s biggest user of all forms of drugs, notably cocaine, where the state accounted for 67 per cent of seizure numbers and more than half of the nation’s total seized figure by weight and 51 per cent of all national cocaine arrests.
ACIC CEO Mike Phelan said serious and organised criminals were at the centre of Australia’s illicit drug market.
“Australian drug markets continue to grow,” he said. “As such, the (drug trade) in Australia remain a focal point of government, law enforcement and intelligence agencies.”