Penington Institute chief executive John Ryan.Credit: Eddie Jim
As part of the commission’s study, testing is carried out at several wastewater sites across Australia – which are kept secret to preserve the integrity of the program.
In the report, commission chief executive officer Heather Cook said the program covered 57 per cent of the Australian population.
She said the findings offered critical insights into Australia’s illicit drug markets, which are supplied by serious and organised criminal groups.
Based on street values, an estimated $10.5 billion was spent on methylamphetamine in the year to August 2023, vastly more than any other illicit drug.
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Cook said this money was laundered domestically and overseas to line the pockets of serious organised crime bosses offshore.
“The groups engaged in illicit drug trafficking and production have no regard for our laws or the harms their trade causes,” she said.
“They are highly capable, well-resourced, resilient and increasingly transnational.”
The Victorian government in 2020 announced it planned to open a second safe injecting room in the CBD to ease heroin-related overdoses in Melbourne and to reduce the pressure on the Richmond facility.
But there have been well-organised local campaigns against suggested locations for the second centre. A counter-campaign of CBD residents, businesses and workers is advocating for the government to open the second facility.
As Melbourne remains embroiled in heated debate, Ryan warned that there was a worrying number of Victorians battling heroin addictions who were being left untreated and without crucial support.
Inside the North Richmond safe injecting room.Credit: Eddie Jim
Ryan said that while a second safe injecting room would have a “huge impact” in reducing overdoses in Melbourne, it was not enough on its own and more support was needed to help people recover.
He said drug overdoses remained a problem nationwide.
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“The overdose total exceeds the road toll, and it has done for years,” Ryan said.
“These are some of the most disadvantaged people in Victoria … they’ve often got extreme experiences of trauma, and we’re not doing what we know to be the best [treatment], which is providing them with wraparound healthcare to help them escape the tyranny of their addiction.”
With Sally Rawsthorne
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