Illicit Drug Use Is Spiking, Yet NSW Authorities Continue Deadly and Performative Approach

The National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program released its latest figures for the period December 2024 to October 2025, and in its ninth year, it found there has been a significant spike in illicit drug use in this country, in terms of methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and MDMA with a record combined weight of 26.8 tonnes, which seems to suggest the war on drugs is failing big time.

The record combined weight of these four party favourites marked a 21 percent, or 4.6 tonne, increase on the year prior, which had already marked an unprecedented weight involving a 34 percent, or 5.6 tonne, spike.

The Australian Crime Intelligence Commission has been sniffing around amongst 57 percent of the nation’s sewage in order to garner these figures, and it’s too found ketamine use is on the rise.

And as New South Wales Greens MLC Cate Faehrmann pointed out in the wake of the 31 April 2026 release of the ACIC wastewater report, Australian governments are spending ever-increasing billions on domestic drug law enforcement and on the Australian Border Force and the Australian federal police border drug seizure operations, and yet there are more drugs in our sewers than ever before.

The last annual release figure from the ABF and AFP on border-controlled drugs was that they’d seized 33.7 tonnes over 2023-24. ACIC publishes the main report on such operations, the Illicit Drug Data report, which was last released in 2023 and covered 2020-21. And Australian law enforcement is well aware that border seizures don’t put a dent in local supply, and they occasionally admit it.

“More drugs are entering Australia than ever before, and more Australians are consuming drugs than ever before”, Faehrmann further pointed out in respect of the report. And despite clear global evidence of how a harm reduction approach could solve local community drug issues, the NSW Minns government aborted drug reform at a late stage in the campaign and threw its body in the bin.

To be seen to be combating drug use

“The wastewater data exposes how much of a monumental failure the decadeslong war on drugs has been and confirms what experts have been warning for years – seizing drugs at the border does not reduce demand,” said Faehrmann. “You can intercept shipments and hold press conferences, but as long as people want drugs, organised crime will keep finding ways to supply them.”

“What we’re seeing is the failure of a system that focuses almost entirely on enforcement, while ignoring the drivers of drug use – mental health, trauma, social stress, boredom, loneliness – and failing to invest properly in treatment and harm reduction,” the Greens drug law reform spokesperson told Sydney Criminal Lawyers on Wednesday.

Faerhmann pointed to wastewater figures relating to cocaine that reveal this is not solely a spike over the last two years, but this is a long-term effect of drug prohibition. In 2016, the wastewater report identified 3,057 kilograms of cocaine whilst in 2025, this had risen to 7,985 kilograms, or close to 8 tonnes. And in terms of meth, coke, heroin and MDMA, NSW is the top consumer of all of them.

Cocaine and heroin are imported, while ice and ecstasy are both manufactured here and smuggled in. The NSW Crime Commission outlined in 2016 that despite larger drug seizures and more arrests, supply continues to rise and foreign cartels call the shots. The 2012-13 Illicit Drug Data report outlined that rising border seizures and domestic raids were having little impact on meth availability.

“The uncomfortable truth that politicians don’t want to admit is that for many people who use illicit drugs, like MDMA, cocaine or cannabis, they’ll do so without major harm,” Faerhmann underscored. “But because drugs are criminalised, people are forced into unregulated markets where they have no idea what they’re taking and are less likely to ask for help if something goes wrong.”

A lifesaving approach to drugs

The Greens MLC added that the approach in NSW is “quite embarrassing”, when considering that the entire nation of Portugal implemented a system of drug decriminalisation in 2001, at a time when 1 percent of its population was dependent on heroin. Decriminalisation means that criminal penalties for drug possession and use are removed. And Lisbon has too invested heavily in drug treatment.

So, people found with a personal amount of an illicit substance are not criminals in Portugal. They are sent before a dissuasion panel, which considers whether they should receive a civil penalty or undergo counselling, while most individuals going before one aren’t required to do anything. This has resulted in decreases in drug-related deaths and HIV infections, while use has dropped long-term.

The Minns government has, however, duped the constiuency on drug reform. NSW premier Chris Minns talked big on reform in opposition. And at that time, there was a formidable decade-old drug law reform campaign underway. But once in power, he dragged his feet on the matter and removed the potential for key reform decriminalisation early on, and then held a drug summit set up to fail.

“I certainly wish that Minns would go ‘full Portugal’, because essentially all that means is no longer treating drug use – any drug use – as a crime and instead viewing it as a health issue,” Faerhmann made certain. “Removing criminal penalties has been a success in Portugal. Of course, it hasn’t stopped drug use, but it hasn’t increased it either.”

“What it has done is pretty much cut overdoses to zero, got people into treatment if and when they need it and targeted public money towards what works.”

Letting the harms fester

Holding a NSW drug summit was part of the NSW Labor platform Minns ran on. This was significant as the 1999 NSW Drug Summit held by the Carr Labor government was pivotal in terms of changing societal attitudes to illicit drug use and the progression of reforms. But the 2024 NSW Drug Summit was instead held in a disjointed and reluctant manner that failed to produce any robust change.

“The drug summit should have been the opportunity for NSW to do the same,” Faehrmann continued, in terms of Portugal’s decrim. “It’s what the experts have all said is needed and it’s what the ice inquiry recommended. Instead, all we got was the premier and health minister spending most of their time at the summit trying to hose down any expectations for meaningful reform.”

Faehrmann explained that experts, people with lived experience, the state-sponsored ice inquiry and a NSW coronial inquest into drug-related deaths at festivals, all agree that “removing criminal penalties for personal drug possession and use” would solve issues around their use, and free up policing resources for serious crime and public money for treatment, education and harm reduction.

The Minns government did, however, roll out an alternative to decriminalisation called the Early Drug Diversion Initiative (EDDI), in February 2024. It was devised by then Coalition attorney general Mark Speakman prior to Minns taking office, as a means to avoid implementing decriminalisation at a point in time when the ice inquiry commissioner and the coroner were calling for the law reform.

The EDDI permits police officers to issue people caught with a personal quantity of drugs in their possession with a $400 on-the-spot fine, which they can then avoid paying if they attend a one-hour-long telehealth counselling session. This can happen twice prior to charging. But being a discretionary measure, early statistics showed that police only diverted 6 percent of eligible people.

“At the very least we need to reform the EDDI which was established to divert drug users from court,” Faerhmann continued. “It’s been a complete failure, partly because of restrictions on accessing the scheme if you’ve already got a criminal record for example, but mainly because it’s left to police discretion.”

“When the culture of the police over many decades is to treat drug use as a crime and drug users as criminals, this was always going to be a problem,” the drug law reformist continued. “Legislation must be brought before the parliament this year to remove police discretion and to divert people caught with a personal quantity of drugs from court.”

In a time of rising drug use

In terms of having a good time, regular people use illegal drugs in the same manner that they use alcohol. But the authorities don’t like to admit that, and they prefer to point out that other regular people use drugs to escape issues or anxieties and that drug use can become problematic.

The current unprecedented quantities of illegal drugs being found in wastewater over the last two years are likely reflective of people turning to drugs due to compounding local and global events that are making life more stressful. This includes cost-of-living and housing crises domestically, and rising war, the tearing down of international law and the Gaza genocide on the global scale.

“People are dealing with a cost-of-living crisis, housing stress, climate anxiety and a growing sense that the future is uncertain,” Faehrmann explained. “Of course, some people are turning to drugs, whether it’s to escape for a bit or simply as a cheaper alternative to alcohol, while socialising with friends. People have always used drugs and they always will.”

The Greens harm reduction spokesperson then refreshingly pointed out that most people in her trade prefer to suppress the fact that “using drugs isn’t inherently problematic” and most people who use them only do so “occasionally and without serious harm”. And the proof can be seen in the Portuguese tart: it is prohibition of drugs that exacerbates all the harms involved in using them.

“Harm reduction works because it accepts the reality of people’s experiences,” Faehrmann told it straight this week. “Services like drug checking and supervised injecting save lives because they help people make safer choices and access support if they need it.”

“Criminalisation just adds another layer of harm,” the Greens MLC said in concluding. “Giving someone a criminal record doesn’t fix issues like addiction, trauma or homelessness, it just makes a person’s life harder.”