National Amphetamine-Type Stimulant Strategy Background Paper

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Recommendations from the consultations and submissions included a need to strengthen
strategic intelligence and to improve national controls so authorities can gain knowledge
about who is involved in the illicit trade. It was also suggested that there needs to be
improved intelligence regarding the manufacturing and distribution believed by consumers
to be locally produced, but not confirmed by law enforcement agencies.
6.5 Local drug markets
Because drug markets are where ‘supply and demand converge’, intervention strategies
need to target both as reducing the supply of a drug to local markets can have a dramatic
effect on both criminal justice and health outcomes (Weatherburn et al., 2003). Infiltrating
these markets requires knowledge of how the market operates. The 2006 DUMA report
suggested that, in clandestine illicit drug markets, it can be quite difficult for buyers and
sellers to become connected and effort is required even for experienced buyers to assess
the options available in the market (Mouzos et al., 2007). In most markets, the buyer and
seller make a significant time investment in the exchange relationship (Wilkins et al., 2004).
Nevertheless, a significant proportion of police detainees and injecting drug users (IDU)
are active in the methamphetamine market. Furthermore, as indicated by the 2004 National
Drug Strategy Household Survey (NDSHS), this market is also available to the general
population as approximately 110,000 persons aged 14 years and older reported accessing
the methamphetamine market within the last week (Australian Institute of Health and
Welfare, 2005a).
There are differences in the ways consumers access illegal drug markets for different
drug types (see Table 6.4). The 2004 NDSHS reported that both meth/amphetamine
and ecstasy were more commonly obtained from a friend (70%) than a dealer (23%)
(Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2005a). In contrast, the most common method
among police detainees was contacting a dealer for methamphetamine by calling on a
mobile phone (31%), or visiting the dealer’s residence (26%) (Mouzos et al., 2007). The
2006 DUMA report found that, irrespective of the drug purchased, detainees were more
likely to have purchased their drugs from a regular source, although a higher proportion
of detainees purchased ecstasy from a new source compared to other drugs (Mouzos
et al., 2007). When methamphetamine is bought within the detainee’s own suburb, the
supplier is likely to be a regular supplier. They are also more likely to report sourcing
from a house or flat for the drug in contrast to heroin which is more likely to be sourced
on the street (Mouzos et al., 2007). However, detainees who had used a new source at
their last time of purchasing methamphetamine were more likely to have purchased the
drug from the street (Mouzos et al., 2007). A major study of the market in Sydney also
found that purchasing from street dealers was uncommon among a sample of regular
methamphetamine users (McKetin et al., 2005).
Among the national sample for the 2006 Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS), all forms of
methamphetamine were most commonly purchased from ‘friends’ and ‘known dealers’, and
the most common locations of purchase were ‘agreed public location’, ‘friend’s home’ and
‘dealer’s home’ (O’Brien et al., 2007). This was replicated in the 2006 Ecstasy and Related
Drugs Reporting System (EDRS), with the exception of ‘agreed public location’
as a common location of purchase (Dunn et al., 2007).