Much of the harm Australian’s suffer at the hands of serious and organised crime is due to illicit drugs and the level of community harm increases in line with consumption.
Since 2016, the National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program has provided leading-edge, coordinated national research and intelligence on illicit drugs – and licit drugs that can be abused – with a specific focus on methylamphetamine and other high-risk substances.
Wastewater analysis is widely applied internationally as a tool to measure and interpret drug use within national populations. The ACIC’s wastewater program gives us valuable insight into trends in drug consumption across Australia and can identify new sources of threat from serious and organised crime.
By analysing the findings of the program, government, law enforcement, health, education and community organisations can have informed national conversations about drug trends and develop targeted policies.
Longitudinal data figures, by state and territory and drug type, have been included since report 11, and updated with each report. These figures can be downloaded from the report page.
Wastewater provides an important, timely and consistent guiding tool for developing holistic drug responses.