CANBERRA, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- A report said Australians spend billions of dollars every year on illicit drugs.
The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) on Thursday published the 12th report from the National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program (NWDMP), which has measured Australian drug use since 2017.
It estimated that Australians consumed 11,147 kg of methylamphetamine, known colloquially as ice, in the fourth year of the survey, down from 11,516 kg in year three.
Cocaine consumption increased from 4,636 kg to 5,675 kg while that of MDMA, also known as ecstasy, increased by 400 kg.
According to the report, Australians spent 8.9 billion Australian dollars (7.09 billion U.S. dollars) on illicit drugs, 78 percent of which, or 6.96 billion AUD (5.55 billion U.S. dollars), was spent on ice.
"Illicit drugs are debilitating, they are destroying lives and the fabric of many communities in Australia," Michael Phelan, the chief executive of ACIC, said in a media release.
"Organized crime groups make money through whatever illegal means they can and profit from the importation, manufacture, trafficking and sale of drugs that cause harm to the community," he said.
"By measuring the level of consumption of illicit drugs and legal drugs with abuse potential, the NWDMP can identify new sources of threat and be used as a key indicator of the harm posed by these substances."
Wastewater samples were taken from sites covering 56 percent of Australia's population, approximately 13.2 million people, for the study. Enditem
