Cocaine is king for many Sydneysiders.Credit:Artwork:Marija Ercegovac
The cost-of-living pressures besetting many Australians appear to have had no impact on the price of illicit drugs.
“The price is set by serious and organised crime groups,and it stays relatively constant,” Neilson said.
“Organised crime is making a significant profit at every level,there’s no need to cut prices to increase market share because the market is there. You make so much profit at the existing level.”
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Only Saudi Arabia,where a drug conviction will get you beheaded,has higher prices for illicit drugs.
Priced at up to $400 per gram,cocaine and its importation have made fortunes for key players in Sydney’s underworld and the bosses controlling the movement of the drug into Australia from offshore.
“This is money laundered domestically and out of Australia to line the pockets of serious organised crime bosses offshore,” the ACIC report reads.
It has also cast a shadow over the city,with control of the lucrative trade sparking conflict culminating in fatal public place shootings like the assassination of Bondi man Alen Moradian last June.
National Drugs and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) director Professor Michael Farrell said wastewater analysis provides “semi-objective data about the size of the market” that can be used with other studies to provide a comprehensive picture of drug taking in Australia.
Off the back of significant post-pandemic shortages,NDARC has also seen a resurgence in cocaine usage in Sydney,he said. “By international standards,drugs are relatively expensive in Australia – cocaine is pricier than in Europe – it makes it an attractive market to drug traffickers,” he said.
National Alcohol and Other Drug Hotline 1800 250 015