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Ammon News - An analysis of wastewater has revealed an increase in Australia's consumption of illicit drugs.

The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) on Wednesday released the 21st report from the National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program, which estimates Australia's drug consumption by measuring for 12 different legal and illegal substances in wastewater samples taken from across the country.

The report revealed that Australians used 10.5 tons of methamphetamine in the 12 months to August 2023 up 17 percent from the year before.

Consumption of cocaine and MDMA commonly known as ecstasy increased by 19 percent and 33 percent respectively in the same period while that of heroin fell 7 percent.

In total over 16.5 tons of methamphetamine also known as methylamphetamine cocaine, MDMA and heroin was consumed by Australians between August 2022 and August 2023.

The report estimated that Australians spent 12.4 billion Australian dollars (8.19 billion U.S. dollars) on those four illicit drugs in the 12-month period up from 10 billion AUD (6.6 billion U.S. dollars ) in the previous 12 months.

Methamphetamine accounted for an estimated 85 percent of that expenditure.

"This is money laundered domestically and out of Australia to line the pockets of serious organized crime bosses offshore," Heather Cook, chief executive of the ACIC, wrote in the report.

"The ACIC remains committed to working with domestic and international intelligence and law enforcement partners to identify and disrupt serious organized criminal networks that continue to supply illicit drugs to Australia."

Despite the rise in methamphetamine use, cannabis remained the most popular illicit drug in Australia, with 13.6 tons consumed in the year to August.

Consumption of alcohol in both capital cities in regional areas fell between August 2022 and August 2023.

Xinhua