Australians are consuming less cocaine and alcohol than they were last year while ketamine use is at an all-time high, according to levels of drugs detected in sewers.
The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission released its latest national wastewater drug monitoring program report on Tuesday, detailing the use of 12 drugs among half of the country’s population across capital cities and regional areas.
The data, collected from 59 sites in April and June and analysed by researchers at University of Queensland and the University of South Australia, showed alcohol and nicotine remained the most widely used drugs in the country and are both consumed more in regional areas than in capital cities. Cannabis was by far the most consumed illicit drug, with its use in regional areas double that in cities.
While cocaine use dropped between December and April, the drug’s use remains higher than that of pre-Covid 19 pandemic levels, especially in cities. The agency was unable to reveal its sampling locations but said a site in Sydney was the country’s cocaine use hotspot. Queensland had the highest regional use of the illicit stimulant.
Nicotine use was also down nationally over the same period – but its overall use since the program’s 2016 inception placed it on an upwards trajectory.
Reflecting a two-year trend, alcohol consumption was down in both regional areas and cities, with the June data showing record low levels of drinking in capital cities. In both areas, April data showed ketamine excretions at a record high. Methylamphetamine use rose but remained below pre-Covid levels.
The report’s 531 samples were taken from wastewater treatment plants to non-intrusively detect drugs in the form in which they were taken or in a chemically modified form known as a metabolite.
In regional areas, fentanyl and oxycodone were at record low levels of use – and, for the first time, below city levels – reflecting successful public health interventions, according to Shane Neilson, the Acic’s principal drugs adviser.
Dr Rachel Sutherland, the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre’s drug trends lead at the University of New South Wales, said it seemed “plausible” that the overall increase in nicotine use was “being driven by vapes that contain nicotine”, and that the wastewater data reflected other findings showing vape and e-cigarette use had doubled between 2014 and 2024.
Sutherland, who was not involved in writing the report, said cocaine use had increased and then stabilised in other surveys, and the overall increase “was likely due to a prolonged surge in cocaine supply and demand that we are seeing globally”.
Similarly, the burgeoning presence of ketamine – especially among people in their 20s and 30s – was driven by availability, Sutherland said. Citing United Nations research, she said ketamine had gone from being diverted from pharmaceutical supplies to being manufactured under clandestine conditions, and that seizures of the drug had risen alongside its use.
The Acic chief executive, Heather Cook, said the report’s data helped form a picture of Australia’s illicit drug markets and the reach of what the commission called “increasingly transnational” serious organised crime groups.
“Australia continues to be exploited by organised crime, costing the nation up to $60bn each year, of which $16.5bn is the result of illicit drug activity,” Cook said. “The heads of criminal networks are driven by greed and will go to great lengths to maximise profits and power.”
In Australia, the National Alcohol and Other Drug Hotline is at 1800 250 015; families and friends can seek help at Family Drug Support Australia at 1300 368 186. In the UK, Action on Addiction is available on 0300 330 0659. In the US, call or text SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 988
