Supply reduction involves ‘preventing, stopping, disrupting or otherwise reducing the production and supply of illegal drugs; and controlling, managing and/or regulating the availability of legal drugs’ (DoH 2017b).
Information on the availability of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs in Australia comes from research with people who use drugs, seizure data from law enforcement agencies, wastewater analysis and information collated from international sources in relation to drug manufacturing and importation.
Legal substances
The consumption of alcohol and tobacco by adults is legal in Australia. Almost 1 in 2 (45%) Australians aged 14 years and over approved of regular adult consumption of alcohol compared with 15.4% who approved of regular tobacco use (AIHW 2020). Alcohol and tobacco products are available for purchase; however, there are a number of strict regulations that control their supply. Specific supply reduction interventions include:
- the enforcement of a minimum purchasing age;
- restriction of operating hours for venues supplying alcohol;
- taxation on alcohol and tobacco products;
- restrictions on the size and strength of beverages or the number of drinks that can be purchased at one time, and the size (minimum number of cigarettes) of cigarette packets.
Medicinal substances
Pharmaceutical drugs are available over-the-counter (OTC) or from a registered health practitioner for the treatment of illness or injury. Their supply by health practitioners is subject to strict controls in relation to quantity supplied and directions for consumption, including the provision of advice to the consumer on restricting the use of these drugs in combination with alcohol and other licit and illicit drugs (TGA 2018).
When pharmaceutical drugs are used for non-medical purposes, the drugs can be diverted or channelled from the legal supply system to the illegal marketplace for misuse. This process of diversion may occur in a number of ways such as sharing between family and friends, theft, prescription forgery, doctor shopping, illegal sale and overprescribing by health practitioners. Policies aimed at reducing the supply of pharmaceutical drugs for non-medical use in Australia, include:
- agreement to develop a national real-time prescription monitoring system;
- the up-scheduling of codeine so that it is available as a prescription-only medication.
In 2016, cannabis became available medicinally in Australia for specific patient groups under strict medical supervision. Other than in these limited circumstances, the cultivation, possession and supply of cannabis remains prohibited in Australia (DoH 2017a).
Prohibited substances
The possession and supply of other illicit drugs such as cannabis, meth/amphetamine, heroin and cocaine are prohibited in Australia. Illicit drugs are commonly sourced for use from friends and relatives, dealers and online (AIHW 2020). Research with people who use drugs suggest illicit drugs are readily available in Australia.
The majority of people who inject drugs that were surveyed as part of the 2019 Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS) interviews indicated that heroin, meth/amphetamine, cannabis and cocaine were either ‘easy’ or ‘very easy’ to obtain (Peacock et al. 2019b). However, 16% of people found methamphetamine powder ‘difficult’ to obtain, a significant increase from 2018 (9%) (Peacock et al. 2019b).
Box HARM1: Data sources of regular drug consumers
The National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) Drug Trends program monitors trends in drugs across Australia. Information is collected from a range of sources including annual interviews with people across Australia who regularly inject drugs through the Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS) and those who regularly use ecstasy or other stimulants through the Ecstasy and Related Drugs Reporting System (EDRS). The IDRS and EDRS sample is a sentinel group that provides information on patterns of drug use and market trends.
The IDRS primarily consists of interviews with people who regularly inject drugs, conducted in the capital cities of Australia. The IDRS also includes data from interviews with key experts and other professionals who regularly work with illicit drug users and other indicator data related to illicit drugs (Peacock et al. 2019b).
The EDRS uses a similar methodology to the IDRS in that it monitors the price, purity and availability of ‘ecstasy’ and other drugs such as methamphetamine, cocaine, gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB), d-lysergic acid (LSD), 3,4-methylendioxyamphetamine (MDA) and ketamine. It also examines trends in the use and harms of these drugs (Peacock et al. 2019a).
It is important to note that the results from the IDRS and EDRS surveys are not representative of consumers and drug use in the general population, The aim of these data are intended to provide evidence that is indicative of emerging issues that warrant further monitoring.
Further information about the Drug Trends program.
There have been fluctuations in the illicit drug market at certain times. For example, in the early 2000s there was a widespread heroin shortage in Australia, which followed a period of unprecedented heroin availability in Australia in the late 1990s. The heroin shortage has been attributed to a range of factors, including high purity and low profit margins for dealers, along with a number of law enforcement seizures (Degenhardt, Day & Hall 2004).
Examples of supply reduction initiatives to limit the availability of illicit drugs include:
- law enforcement operations involving drug seizures and arrests;
- disrupting the diversion of precursor chemicals that are used in the manufacture of illicit drugs.
Drug seizures
The ACIC collects national illicit drug seizure data annually from federal, state and territory police services, including the number and weight of seizures to inform the Illicit Drug Data Report (IDDR). According to the 2017–18 IDDR, there were 112,827 national illicit drug seizures in 2017–18, which is equivalent to around one seizure every 5 minutes. While the number of national illicit drug seizures decreased slightly from 113,533 in 2016–17), there has been an overall increase of 67.0% over the last decade (from 67,559 in 2008–09) (Figure HARM3). Cannabis (52.4%) and amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS; 32.9%) accounted for the greatest proportion of national illicit drug seizures in 2017–18. The number of cannabis seizures decreased in 2017–18 and ATS seizures remained relatively stable (ACIC 2019a).
The weight of illicit drugs seized nationally was a record 30.6 tonnes in 2017–18, an increase of 130.0% over the last decade (from 13.3 tonnes in 2008–09) (ACIC 2019a). This, in part, is driven by an increase in the weight of cocaine seized, which increased 173% from 721 kilograms in 2015–16 to 1,970kg in 2017–18 (the second highest weight recorded for cocaine, following a record 4,623 kilograms in 2016–17). The weight of ATS seized in 2017–18 (11,205 kilograms) was the second highest recorded and represented an increase of 48% from the 7,571 kilograms seized in 2016-17. ATS accounted for the greatest proportion of the weight of illicit drugs seized in 2017–18 (36.6%) followed by cannabis (28.3%), illicit drugs classified as other and unknown (27.4%), cocaine (6.4%) and heroin and other opioids (1.2%) (Figure HARM3).