Impacts-of-methamphetamine-in-Victoria-Community-Assessment-Penington-Institute

proposition that methamphetamine use was occurring in small towns, and that on a population level,its use may be higher in regional areas than in Melbourne. Samples were taken twice in a week,which enabled comparison of weekend versus mid-week drug consumption. The WWA methodologyincludes volume requirements, timing and frequency of sample collection, storage and reportingrequirements, as well as population data that are to be provided by each site5. Component one – literature reviewMethamphetamine is a variant of amphetamine. A stimulant, methamphetamine is made primarilyfrom ephedrine or pseudoephedrine and is typically available in four forms; tablet, powder, base andcrystal (ice) [12]. In the 1990s, methamphetamine replaced amphetamine as the dominant form ofamphetamine available in Australia. Crystal methamphetamine, also known as ‘ice’ or ‘crystal’, is acrystalline form of higher purity methamphetamine [13].The use of illicit stimulants in Australia rose in the 1990s, climbing from around an estimated two percent of the Australian population aged 14 years or older in 1993, to a peak of almost four per cent(3.7 per cent) by 1998 [14]. This trend was argued to have occurred primarily because of theincreased availability of imported crystal methamphetamine [15]. The shift to increased use of crystalmethamphetamine encouraged a culture of smoking, via a glass pipe, or a ‘bong’-style water pipe,particularly among recreational users [16]. It also resulted in greater drug-related harms, and inhigher numbers of people who primarily smoke methamphetamine seeking treatment[17].Information on how to manufacture methamphetamine is easily accessed through the internet,and it is able to be covertly manufactured in a wide variety of locations at low cost [18, 19].The most recent publication of the (Australian) National Drug Strategy Household Survey (NDSHS)was published in 2011 and measured population-level drug use in 2010 [20], well before theincreased use since 2012. 2 The report indicated that, since 1998, prevalence of methamphetamineuse in Australia as a whole had declined, from a peak of 3.7 per cent of people 14 years old or olderrecorded in the 1998 survey, to 2.1 per cent in the 2010 report. This reduction in use is thought to berelated to a decrease in the initiation of use among young people [21]. Methamphetamine remainsthe fourth-most used illicit drug in Australia, following cannabis, MDMA (ecstasy) and pharmaceuticaldrugs [20].In 2013 the Australian Bureau of Statistics Macro-Economics research unit has estimated the value oftrade and profitability in certain illicit drugs in Australia. It estimated that Australians spentapproximately $1.05 billion on crystal and non-crystal amphetamines in 2010, and that the profitwithin that sales volume was approximately $1.03 billion [22]. Based on a crude population-level split,the Victorian proportion of that approximate consumer spending would have been around$250,000,000 in 2010. The researchers who conducted this analysis, based on complex economicmodelling, have told Penington Institute the estimates published were at the conservative end of therange. Amphetamine use is more widespread than heroin use [23]. The ABS drug market modellershave calculated that there were approximately 10 times more “occasional” users ofmethamphetamine than there are “heavy users”. This was not the case with heroin, where theyestimate “heavy users” outnumber “occasional users” [24, 25]. This split between “heavy” and“occasional” should borne in mind when reading the Waste Water Analysis section of this report.2 The survey is due to be released in 2014 and measured the population in 2013.13