Australia ranks second worldwide in methamphetamine consumption, according to latest wastewater analysis

The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission released on Wednesday an annual report based on the analysis of wastewater collected from 64 treatment plants between August 2024 and 2025, and the findings indicate that national methamphetamine consumption has nearly doubled over the past ten years, moving the country to the position of the second‑largest consumer of the stimulant globally, a status that starkly contrasts with the government’s proclaimed dedication to combating illicit drug markets.

In addition to the surge in methamphetamine use, the same data set revealed that cocaine consumption has reached unprecedented levels, a development that the commission documented without offering an explanatory framework, thereby exposing a systemic reliance on indirect measurement techniques rather than proactive public‑health interventions or robust enforcement strategies.

The methodology, which hinges on the detection of drug metabolites in municipal effluent, underscores an institutional gap wherein policy makers appear more comfortable tracking downstream chemical residues than addressing the upstream social determinants that fuel demand, a paradox that becomes increasingly evident as the report situates Australia’s stimulant use trends alongside those of countries traditionally associated with higher drug prevalence.

While the commission’s figures provide a quantitative baseline for future monitoring, the absence of a coordinated response plan within the report suggests a procedural inconsistency: the very agency tasked with intelligence gathering offers little guidance on mitigation, leaving stakeholders to infer that the escalation of both methamphetamine and cocaine use may be regarded as an inevitable by‑product of existing regulatory frameworks rather than a solvable crisis.

Consequently, the release of the wastewater analysis not only confirms the dramatic rise in stimulant consumption but also implicitly highlights the predictable failure of current institutional mechanisms to translate empirical data into effective policy action, a situation that, given the scale of the problem, can hardly be dismissed as a temporary oversight.

Published: April 29, 2026