Cocaine consumption in Melbourne has surged six-fold in the past decade amid what police say is a “normalisation” of its use.
The state’s appetite for cocaine is so voracious that an estimated $1.3bn is spent on the drug per year, an analysis based on Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission wastewater reports shows.
The latest figures show there was a daily average cocaine use in Melbourne of more than 1200mg per 1000 people.
When ACIC first started releasing drug surveys based on sewage in 2016, the figure was a much lower 200mg per 1000 people.
Consumers willing to pay some of the world’s highest cocaine prices have pushed the market’s value in Victoria to well beyond $1bn in recent years.
The increase outside Melbourne has been, in relative terms, even steeper as crime syndicates exploit markets in regional centres.
The rate of use in country areas was under 100mg per 1000 people 10 years ago but is now above 700mg.
The explosion in cocaine use is at odds with other categories examined in the wastewater work.
Drugs like heroin, methylamphetamine and MDMA have remained relatively stable since 2016’s first report.
Consumers are paying about $400 per gram for cocaine in Victoria.
That stable street price defies the wholesale price which has dropped recent years, from close to $400,000 per kg to around the $100,000 mark.
The apparently abundant supply which has forced down per-kilogram prices is despite some massive Australian busts, some running into the tonnes.
There have also been foiled importation conspiracies orchestrated by transnational syndicates trying to get huge consignments in on container ships.
Police allege one was a failed bid by a group of Victorian men to use a fishing boat, the Gabo Bay, to retrieve up to 3.5 tonnes of cocaine from a foreign vessel in Bass Strait earlier this year.
ACIC principal drug specialist Shane Neilson told the Herald Sun the amount of cocaine used in Victoria had now exceeded two tonnes per year and that its perception as a “glamorous” drug concealed potentially lethal consequences.
“When you’re dealing with illicit markets there is no quality control … just recently there has been reports of cocaine being adulterated with heroin,” he said.
“We are seeing relatively pure cocaine (being imported), but there is no safe level of consumption. To an extent, cocaine consumption has been normalised in TV shows and that sort of thing, and it’s associated with a particular lifestyle … whereas methylamphetamine does not have that same reputation as a glamorous drug.”
Mr Neilson said the surge in usage was national was likely to continue to grow.
“We believe there is potential for consumption to rise, despite very high levels of detection at the border and off shore,” he said.
“At one stage I think cocaine was perceived to be expensive and out of reach for many illicit drug users.
“I also think the harms posed by cocaine are often downplayed in the public perception, but cocaine can kill you.”
Much of the Melbourne dealing is done on encrypted apps like Signal, which are a modern-day must-have for criminals because of their privacy advantages.
This comes with a degree of risk.
In 2024, Michael Hodgkinson was involved in a text message exchange with a Signal dealer using the handle “Tryme”.
It was clear Mr Hodgkinson was in the market for cocaine and MDMA but what he actually got was protonitazene, a highly potent synthetic opioid.
A day later, in the early hours of January 24, 2024, he, Thomas Vale, Carly Morse and 17-year-old Abdul El Sayed snorted it at a Broadmeadows house and died soon after.
Investigators later found beige powder on a plate in the kitchen with a rolled-up banknote nearby.
Police last year charged a trafficker with running a service which used ride-share drivers to deliver cocaine and other drugs to inner-city nightclubs on order.
Some dealers have been busted with small wireless payment devices used to service clients cash free.
Sources say dealers to the social set will be rubbing their hands together in anticipation of a boost in business as the warmer months arrive.
A well-connected figure said corporate footy finals functions and the spring racing carnival presented rich pickings.
Not that consumption is confined to the big event circuit.
Those at a picnic race meeting in country Victoria saw the cocaine culture in full swing last summer.
There, a large group gathered for a celebration were openly hoovering up powder, seeming not to care who saw it.
Later, they headed back to town and congregated at an inner-suburban hotel where a large suite had been organised for the after-party.
One person among them estimated only a handful of the 40-odd people gathered were not on the coke.
“It was like the Wolf of Wall St,” he said.
Some users are so blasé about the drug and its apparent social acceptability that they will openly snort it in CBD pubs and clubs.
A company director said he had lost count of the number of times his counterparts offered him a “bump” while doing business.
A celebrity chef with national profile surprised some fellow revellers on a recent night with his candid consumption.
“He pulled it out like it was a bag of Nobby’s Nuts after a few drinks,” the source said.
Sources say a prominent fitness influencer is known to regularly put aside her public commitment to good health and “get on the bags”.
Cocaine has also moved in on parental get-togethers.
While grog was once the social lubricant at school functions, coke has become more common, according to several parents.
They said they had noticed its increased consumption at things like adult trivia nights and other fundraisers.
“How do people afford to do this shit?” one parent said.
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett this week said “absurd” amounts of cash were involved in drug markets, with major side effects.
“Part of the conversation needs to be collectively louder about the dangers of illicit drug use and linking it to the organised crime violence in our communities and the impact it is having on our national security,” she said.
“My posture is not to be confused with criticisms of any individual, policies or decisions, it is firmly about injecting some energy and focus on what the community needs to know and understand about organised crime.”