Why does WA keep topping the nation for meth use?

Western Australia has recorded its highest levels of methamphetamine consumption at both a city and regional level, according to new data shining a light on the nation’s drug use.

The latest report from the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission has revealed an estimated 1716.4 kilograms of methamphetamine was consumed in WA during year eight of the commission’s National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program.

“In August 2024, Perth had the highest estimated average capital city consumption of methylamphetamine, while Western Australia had the highest average regional consumption,” the report read.

There were also notable increases in MDMA use in most jurisdictions, but particularly the Northern Territory (92 per cent) and Western Australia (65 per cent).

And regional parts of Western Australia, the Northern Territory and South Australia all recorded cannabis consumption levels well above the national average.

ACIC chief executive Heather Cook said nationally the wastewater report revealed 22.2 tonnes of methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and MDMA were consumed from August 2023 to August 2024.

This was a 34 per cent increase from the previous year.

“This combined data strongly indicates a concerning level of market growth, extending beyond the markets for illicit stimulants,” Cook said.

“This challenge can only be met through concerted and coordinated effort under the three pillars of the National Drug Strategy: demand reduction, supply reduction and harm reduction.”

Adjunct Professor Dr Nicole Lee from the National Drug Research Institute at Curtin University said some of WA’s high drug usage could be attributed to the state’s FIFO mining community; a fairly wealthy fly-in, fly-out mining workforce that could generate more disposable income had knock-on effects through the economy.

She said drug use was “entrenched” in WA’s culture.

“WA and Perth in particular, have pretty much always had the highest average consumption of methamphetamine in a whole range of different data sets for many decades,” she said.

“It’s those kinds of trends that continue over a long period of time.

“They’re quite hard to shift. WA is also quite a bit closer than the rest of Australia to the manufacturing hubs in South-East Asia. So that’s also one of the factors.”

Lee said proximity to manufacturers made the drug cheaper and more accessible and the latest ACIC report showed the world was seeing record levels of cultivation and manufacture of cocaine and methylamphetamine, particularly from traditional source countries in the Americas and Asia.

“It’s a general rule around the world that the closer you are to where drugs are manufactured, the more those drugs will come into the country, the more access people will have to them and the cheaper they are,” she said.

“All of those things make it more likely that more people will use it, or will use more of it.”

She gave the example of cocaine, made in South America, which was further from WA with the closest port, Sydney, having the highest use of cocaine in Australia.

By the time it got to Perth it was low quality and very expensive, whereas methamphetamine was manufactured around the “golden triangle” in South East Asia.

“It’s also manufactured in Australia, but you’ve got the addition of imported methamphetamine coming in as well,” she said.

“And we often see WA particularly and the top part of Queensland generally have quite a high rate of use as well, because it’s that proximity. And then when you get down to the states at the bottom, they’ve got relatively low levels of use because they’re much further away.”

The report also revealed MDMA was traditionally supplied by countries in Europe, but more recently there had also been indications of increased domestic manufacture.

The Australian heroin market is supplied by relatively high quality product, primarily from South East Asia.

But the wastewater results could be misleading about how many people in the community were taking drugs, Lee said.

It didn’t reveal how many people were using, just measured the volume.

“So it could be a small number of people using a lot, or a large number of people using a small amount; we don’t know, right?” she said.

“But the National Drug Strategy Household Survey could put them together. It gives you a better picture.”

Lee said a drop in drug use during the pandemic was over, with an increase since.

Cocaine particularly, and also ketamine and hallucinogens were on the rise, driving the general increase in drug use.

“We’ve seen this increase in cocaine use over several years now, and it’s just getting more and more popular with people,” she said.

“But also you have to think about how often people are using … 70 per cent or more of people who use most illicit drugs use them very irregularly, like less than once a month, so that [reduces] harms and problems.”

With Holly Thompson and Cameron Myles.

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