Cocaine use in New South Wales, Australia, 1996-2000: 5 year monitoring of trends in price, purity, availability and use from the illicit drug reporting system.

This paper describes trends in the price, purity, availability and use of cocaine in Sydney, Australia monitored by the Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS) between 1996 and 2000. The IDRS monitors illicit drug trends by means of triangulation of data from interviews with injecting drug users (IDU), reports of key informants, and analysis of indicator data. The price of a 'cap' of cocaine fell from 80 Australian dollars in 1997 to 50 Australian dollars in 1998, and remained at the lower price in subsequent years. Cocaine purity was high in all years (range 50-64%), and was highest in the 1997-1998 period. The availability of cocaine and its use by IDU increased substantially, 1997 and 1998, and remained high in subsequent years. The median number of cocaine use days also increased substantially between 1997 (4 days) and 1998 (25 days), and remained at higher levels than prior to 1998 in subsequent years. Cocaine use was primarily of powder, by injection, and strongly associated with existing heroin injectors. The availability and use of crack remained rare in Sydney. Use of cocaine among IDU was associated with more frequent injections, more injection-related health problems, higher levels of needle sharing, and higher levels of criminality. It is concluded that the use and availability of cocaine in Sydney increased substantially between 1997 and 1998, and has remained entrenched in the Sydney illicit drug market. The regular and formal monitoring of illicit drug trends enabled substantial changes in the cocaine market in Sydney to be detected, and the information to be fed back to the health and law enforcement sectors.