Wastewater results show high levels of cocaine and MDMA consumption in New South Wales

Today Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) Chief Executive Officer, Mr Michael Phelan APM and Professor Christina Lee, Associate Dean (Research), Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences at The University of Queensland signed a contract extending their involvement in the National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program (NWDMP) for a further four years. This enables the University of Queensland, and through it the University of South Australia, to continue to undertake the data collection and analysis underpinning the program.

At the signing, the ACIC also released the eighth report of the NWDMP, revealing New South Wales reported some of the highest cocaine and MDMA consumption levels across the country.

Across the seven sites monitored in the state in April 2019—three capital city and four regional sites—findings show New South Wales had the highest average capital city and regional consumption of cocaine and the highest average regional consumption of MDMA nationally. New South Wales also had the second highest average capital city and regional consumption of heroin, and the second highest average regional consumption of methylamphetamine, fentanyl and alcohol in the country.

Mr Phelan said that much of the harm that Australians suffer at the hands of organised crime is due to the illicit drug trade. By measuring the level of consumption of illicit drugs and legal drugs with abuse potential, the NWDMP provides a key indicator of the level of harm posed by these substances.

“Extending this valuable program to provide a further four years of drug consumption data will enable law enforcement, policy, education, regulatory and health agencies to build a more comprehensive picture of drug use in Australia,” said Mr Phelan.

The NWDMP found that, compared to December 2018, of the substances tested in April 2019 in New South Wales:

  • average nicotine consumption decreased in capital city sites and increased in regional sites
  • average alcohol consumption decreased in capital city sites and increased in regional sites
  • average methylamphetamine consumption increased in both capital city and regional sites
  • average cocaine consumption increased in both capital city regional sites
  • average MDMA consumption decreased in both capital city and regional sites
  • average MDA excretion decreased in both capital city and regional sites
  • average oxycodone consumption decreased in both capital city and regional sites
  • average fentanyl consumption decreased in both capital city and regional sites
  • average heroin consumption decreased in both capital city and regional sites
  • average cannabis consumption decreased in both capital city and regional sites.

The ACIC would like to acknowledge the valuable support and specialist expertise of the University of Queensland and the University of South Australia, which provide the NWDMP with leading-edge, coordinated national research on illicit and licit drugs and the wastewater treatment plant operators which provide invaluable contributions to the program.

The report is available from the ACIC website:

www.acic.gov.au

Note to editors

In accordance with current wastewater analysis conventions, the terms of the contract, and to protect the integrity of the program, the exact locations are not able to be publicly released by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission. To maintain the confidentiality of the participating site, each site was allocated a unique code to de-identify their results, however trends in particular states and territories are still able to be identified.