Young drug users are shifting towards higher purity ecstasy, and cocaine use is at its highest level ever recorded, the latest Australian Drug Trends Reports shows.
More than one in four people who take stimulant drugs are using ecstasy weekly in 2018, the analysis of the Ecstasy and Related Drugs Reporting System (EDRS) suggests.
Crystal and capsule ecstasy use have reached the highest levels since the EDRS began in 2003, while pill use has dropped, according to the report released on Monday by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre’s
Almost three in four (72 per cent) reported taking crystal ecstasy and more than two in three (63 per cent) take the capsule form of the drug, which are known to be of higher purity than tablets.
One in five reported taking capsules not knowing what substance was inside.
In September, two suspected drug overdose deaths at the Defqon.1 music festival prompted NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian to establish an expert panel to devise strategies to make festivals safer. The panel has been instructed not to consider the merits of pill testing.
The NDARC analysis was based on interviews with 299 regular users of ecstasy and other stimulant drugs from all Australian capital cities. The average age of participants is 21 and the vast majority were employed or studying.
“It is a concerning trend in terms to the possible harms to people,” said Dr Amy Peacock, who leads NDARC’s Drug Trend’s project.
“Use of higher purity stimulants can increase the risk of experiencing acute and long-term negative health effects [including] dehydration, increased or irregular heart rate, agitation, headaches, and seizures,” Dr Peacock said.
But she stressed the results were not reflective of drug use in Australians overall.
Ecstasy users rarely take the drug alone, with nine in 10 reporting the last time they used an illicit stimulant they also used cannabis, alcohol, hallucinogens such as LSD, or other drugs, Dr Peacock said.
Over the past six months half of all participants said they had used LSD and one in three used ketamine.
Almost all of the participants reported drinking alcohol (98 per cent), 90 per cent used cannabis and 85 per cent used tobacco (44 per cent daily).
Combining the drugs was a “risky” move that increased the likelihood of suffering an adverse health event, Dr Peacock said.
Cocaine use had also risen, with almost 60 per cent of participants saying they had taken the drug in the last six months, compared to 48 per cent in 2017.
But it was not used habitually, with only 7 per cent taking the illicit drug weekly or more frequently.
One in three participants said they had recently used new psychoactive substances including synthetic cannabis.
DMT, “a powerful psychedelic”, was the most commonly used so-called designer drug, followed by 2C substances, described as a cross between LSD and ecstasy, NDARC Senior Research Officer Rachel Sutherland said.
Psycho-stimulants are having some worrying effects on the health of young users, according to research led by NDARC’s Professor Shane Darke.
One in five of 280 fatal strokes among young adults (under 45s) between 2009 and 2016 were users, the analysis of the National Coroners Information System found.
“If you would have asked me at the beginning of the study, I would have said about 5 per cent. One in five is an astonishingly high amount,” Professor Darke said.
Almost all had taken the stimulant immediately before having the stroke. Their average age at death was 37 years old.
The research findings will be presented at NDARC's Annual Symposium at UNSW on Monday.
