National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
Int J Drug Policy. 2023 Mar;113:103976. doi: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2023.103976. Epub 2023 Feb 16.
Changes to drug markets can affect drug use and related harms. We aimed to describe market trends of heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and ecstasy in Australia following the introduction of COVID-19 pandemic-associated restrictions.
Australians residing in capital cities who regularly inject drugs (n ∼= 900 each year) or regularly use ecstasy and/or other illicit stimulants (n ∼= 800 each year) participated in annual interviews 2014-2022. We used self-reported market indicators (price, availability, and purity) for heroin, crystal methamphetamine, cocaine, and ecstasy crystal to estimate generalised additive models. Observations from the 2014-2019 surveys were used to establish the pre-pandemic trend; 2020, 2021 and 2022 observations were considered immediate, short-term and longer-term changes since the introduction of pandemic restrictions.
Immediate impacts on market indicators were observed for heroin and methamphetamine in 2020 relative to the 2014-2019 trend; price per cap/point increased (β: A$9.69, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.25-17.1 and β: A$40.3, 95% CI: 33.1-47.5, respectively), while perceived availability (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] for 'easy'/'very easy' to obtain: 0.38, 95% CI: 0.24-0.59 and aOR: 0.08, 95% CI: 0.03-0.25, respectively) and perceived purity (aOR for 'high' purity: 0.36, 95% CI: 0.23-0.54 and aOR: 0.33, 95% CI: 0.20-0.54, respectively) decreased. There was no longer evidence for change in 2021 or 2022 relative to the 2014-2019 trend. Changes to ecstasy and cocaine markets were most evident in 2022 relative to the pre-pandemic trend: price per gram increased (β: A$92.8, 95% CI: 61.6-124 and β: A$24.3, 95% CI: 7.93-40.6, respectively) and perceived purity decreased (aOR for 'high purity': 0.18, 95% CI: 0.09-0.35 and 0.57, 95% CI: 0.36-0.90, respectively), while ecstasy was also perceived as less easy to obtain (aOR: 0.18, 95% CI: 0.09-0.35).
There were distinct disruptions to illicit drug markets in Australia after the COVID-19 pandemic began; the timing and magnitude varied by drug.
药物市场的变化可能会影响药物使用和相关危害。我们旨在描述澳大利亚在 COVID-19 大流行相关限制措施实施后，海洛因、冰毒、可卡因和摇头丸的市场趋势。
每年有 900 名左右经常注射毒品的澳大利亚首都城市居民（∼= 900 名）或经常使用摇头丸和/或其他非法兴奋剂的澳大利亚首都城市居民（∼= 800 名）参加年度访谈。我们使用海洛因、冰毒、可卡因和摇头丸晶体的自我报告市场指标（价格、可及性和纯度）来估计广义加性模型。2014-2019 年调查的观察结果用于建立大流行前的趋势；2020 年、2021 年和 2022 年的观察结果被认为是自大流行限制措施实施以来的即时、短期和长期变化。
与 2014-2019 年的趋势相比，2020 年海洛因和冰毒的市场指标立即受到影响；每单位/点的价格上涨（β：9.69 澳元，95%置信区间 [CI]：2.25-17.1 和 β：40.3 澳元，95% CI：33.1-47.5），而感知的可及性（“容易”/“非常容易”获得的调整后的优势比[aOR]：0.38，95%CI：0.24-0.59 和 aOR：0.08，95%CI：0.03-0.25）和感知的纯度（“高”纯度的 aOR：0.36，95%CI：0.23-0.54 和 aOR：0.33，95%CI：0.20-0.54）降低。与 2014-2019 年的趋势相比，2021 年或 2022 年没有证据表明发生了变化。与大流行前的趋势相比，摇头丸和可卡因市场的变化在 2022 年最为明显：每克价格上涨（β：92.8 澳元，95%CI：61.6-124 和 β：24.3 澳元，95%CI：7.93-40.6），感知纯度下降（“高纯度”的 aOR：0.18，95%CI：0.09-0.35 和 0.57，95%CI：0.36-0.90），而摇头丸也被认为更容易获得（aOR：0.18，95%CI：0.09-0.35）。
澳大利亚 COVID-19 大流行开始后，非法毒品市场出现了明显的中断；时间和规模因药物而异。
