Sydney has Australia’s highest house prices and is the nation’s cocaine capital, two crowning achievements that should be matters of deep regret for the damage they wreak on ordinary lives.
The realisation that our city’s towering real estate market is a major and symbolic contributor to Australia’s onerous cost of living crisis is now starting to be appreciated but our growing fondness for what was once the “party” drug of choice goes on unhindered with law enforcement agencies – despite occasional successes – seemingly unable to stop the snow storm.
The Australian Crime Intelligence Commission’s latest annual snapshot of illicit drugs detected in waste water shows Sydney retained its title as the cocaine capital of Australia. Across the nation, we spent an unprecedented $12.4 billion on methylamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and MDMA between August 2022 and August 2023. The year before that, they spent $10 billion. Cocaine consumption jumped by 19 per cent and of the 4.037 tonnes of cocaine taken nationally, almost half (1.9 tonnes) was consumed in NSW, with Sydneysiders taking the “lion’s share” of the 1933.7 kilograms consumed.
Victorians used 974.4 kilograms of cocaine. Melbourne remained Australia’s heroin capital, with new data showing Victorians accounted for almost half of the nation’s yearly consumption of the deadly and highly addictive drug.
The commission has been testing waste water for drugs since 2016 and while consumption of alcohol continues to decline, cocaine usage has come back dramatically since the lockdown years shrank the market and caused a post-pandemic supply problem. Now, like house prices, the drug is more expensive in Sydney than in Europe. Only Saudi Arabia, where a drug conviction will get you beheaded, has higher prices for illicit drugs.
The commission’s acting national manager data analytics Shane Neilson told the Herald that organised crime was ramping up prices and the growing cost of living pressures besetting many Australians appear to have had no impact. “The price is set by serious and organised crime groups, and it stays relatively constant,” Neilson said. “Organised crime is making a significant profit at every level, there’s no need to cut prices to increase market share because the market is there. You make so much profit at the existing level.”
The portrayal of cocaine in popular culture has contributed to the common belief that it is the most expensive drug. But in reality, 85 per cent of money spent by Australians on the top four illicit drugs targeted crystal methylamphetamine or ice, and on the street it is by far the costliest drug. The commission also found regional Australians were more likely to use methamphetamine and MDMA, while cocaine and heroin were capital city favourites.
Still, Sydney’s dark addiction to cocaine is a curious need. We know it harms, yet celebrate the drug in film and song, and while many might think it’s just part of a big night out, the reality is your “party” line is the end product of a dark underworld of crime, murder, exploitation and addiction.
Sydney’s cocaine addiction is costing non-users dearly
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17.03.2024
Sydney has Australia’s highest house prices and is the nation’s cocaine capital, two crowning achievements that should be matters of deep regret for the damage they wreak on ordinary lives.
The realisation that our city’s towering real estate market is a major and symbolic contributor to Australia’s onerous cost of living crisis is now starting to be appreciated but our growing fondness for what was once the “party” drug of choice goes on unhindered with law enforcement agencies – despite occasional successes – seemingly unable to stop the snow storm.
The Australian Crime Intelligence Commission’s latest annual snapshot of illicit drugs detected in waste water shows Sydney retained its title as the cocaine capital of Australia.........
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