Cannabis remains the most common drug of use, but with a declining trend among the general population seen over the past decade. Ecstasy is reported as the second most common drug of use in 2007 and has shown an increasing trend over the past decade. Ecstasy replaced methamphetamine as the second most prevalent drug of use in 2004. Among regular ecstasy users who are surveyed across Australia each year, the prevalence of recent methamphetamine use and, in particular, crystalline methamphetamine declined during the period 2003 to 2007 (Black et al., 2008). The prevalence of methamphetamine and amphetamine use among the general population have stabilized and then declined since 2001, although at a comparatively high level UNODC, 2008. Heroin use has remained largely stable over the past decade.

According to the National Drug Strategy Household Survey (NDSHS), a general population survey published in 2008, the past year use of cannabis among the general population showed a decline in recent years. There was a decrease from the 17.9% reporting use in the past year in 1999 to 9.1% reporting past year use in 2007. However, according to the survey the number of people reporting daily use increased. In addition, health indicators have indicated an increasing number of cannabis related hospital consultations during the period from 1993/4 to 2006/7 (NDARC, 2009). Hence, although the overall cannabis use decrease, the consumption among regular users has gone up.

Ecstasy use in Australia has shown an increasing use trend as reported in the past five NDSHS surveys with annual use increasing from 0.9% in 1995 to 3.5% in 2007, the highest levels ever recorded. The strong demand for ecstasy is also reflected in law enforcement statistics with one of the largest seizures in the world involving 4.4 tons occurring in 2007. Data collected through Australia’s Drug Use Monitoring System (DUMA) support these increases with 3.6% of detainees testing positive in 2007 compared to 0.5% in 2000 (Adams et al., 2008). Although detainees self-disclose that they consumed what they believed to have been ‘ecstasy’, confirmatory urine analysis revealed in more than half of the cases a positive test for methamphetamine rather than ecstasy-group substances.

Methamphetamine use escalated dramatically in late 1990s and early 2000s, but the rate of use has shown a steady downward trend in recent years with past year prevalence declining from 3.7% in 1998 to 2.3% in 2007. At the same time, there have been increases in other indicators, such as hospital consultation for amphetamine related problems. Use of methamphetamine within the general population continues to be predominated by the powder form of methamphetamine, known on the street as ’speed’. Only about a quarter of the 2007 sample of methamphetamine users reported primary use of the crystalline methamphetamine.

Although heroin represents a small proportion of illicit drug users with 0.2% reporting use during the past year in 2007, the drug accounts for a large number of treatment admissions and drug related deaths due to overdose. The NDARC in its annual survey through the Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS), notes that the prevalence of heroin use among regular injecting drug users who are surveyed across Australia each year has declined since a marked reduction in availability of the drug occurred in 2001. Other indicators, such as data collected by needle and syringe programmes, also suggest there were fewer new initiates to injecting drug use in Australia during the period 2003 to 2007.

Data regarding the size or capacity of the clandestine laboratories that are dismantled are not provided in published reports. In terms of the number of laboratories seized, the annual totals for those manufacturing ‘homebake’ heroin during the period 2003/04 and 2007/08 were relatively low at between 5 to 10, while those producing ecstasy fluctuated between 7 and 24 during the same period. However, ATS clandestine laboratory seizuresranged between 221 and 280 (Table 21). Unlike many labs seized in East and South-East Asia, the vast majority of clandestine labs in Australia are smaller-scale ‘kitchen-labs.’ However, the simple count of laboratories does not accurately convey the increasing sophistication of some of these operations. For example, in January 2008 a clandestine operation discovered in Adelaide uncovered a new approach to methamphetamine manufacture involving yeast fermentation with benzaldehyde to synthesize l-phenylacetylcarbinol (l-PAC), a precursor of ephedrine (Cox, Klass, Wei, and Koo, 200 ).