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Speaker 1: Or roadside drug testing in South Australia is to be

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Speaker 1: expanded to include cocaine from early next year. Now the

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Speaker 1: currently police test for methamphetamine, cannabis and ecstasy MDMA, but

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Speaker 1: from early next year cocaine will be added to the list.

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Speaker 1: The effects may last a short time but can be

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Speaker 1: detected for up to twenty four hours after consumption. Let's

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Speaker 1: talk about cocaine with Associate Professor Cobis Gerber who's from

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Speaker 1: the Department of Clinical and Health Sciences at UNISSA. Associate Professor,

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Speaker 1: good morning, Good morning. Tell me about the effects of cocaine,

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Speaker 1: so they don't last a long time. That's what I

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Speaker 1: understand from SAPAL.

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Speaker 2: Now, look, cocaine is one of the stimulants, and people

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Speaker 2: might be more familiar with methamphetamine or ISOs that's also

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Speaker 2: known and if you compare the to certainly cocaine as

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Speaker 2: a fairly short duration of action. But of course it

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Speaker 2: stays in the body and as you mentioned in your

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Speaker 2: lead up, it takes time to get cleared from the

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Speaker 2: body and therefore it can be measured several hours after

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Speaker 2: the effects have worn off.

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Speaker 1: Okay, when it lasts a short time, presumably immediately that

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Speaker 1: hidden if the movies are. And I've never tried any

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Speaker 1: drug really apart from maybe trying to path and I

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Speaker 1: just couldn't inhale. I couldn't even do tobacco, which is

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Speaker 1: to my shame, I suppose, But thank goodness, the effects

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Speaker 1: from the movies that I've seen, all thanks to Hollywood.

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Speaker 1: It lasts a short time. It's an immediate effect. And

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Speaker 1: how long does it last.

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Speaker 2: It depends on the user, and it would certainly depend

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Speaker 2: on the dose how much, and also the root of administration.

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Speaker 2: So if you're in alert, it passes, you know, directly

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Speaker 2: from the lungs into the bloodstream, and the effect is

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Speaker 2: virtually immediate. It can be seconds, but then it's sort

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Speaker 2: of half an hour to an hour. Again, it depends

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Speaker 2: on the amount that the person has taken and also

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Speaker 2: the person's ability to metabolize or to process the drug.

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Speaker 2: But it's relatively short, where it's something like methamphetamine or

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Speaker 2: even ecstasy can bear hours.

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Speaker 1: Right, what are the effects now? It obviously speeds up?

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Speaker 2: What reaction is that it not necessarily it's rather it's

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Speaker 2: a stimulant, so it increases the heart rate, blood pressure

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Speaker 2: sign gives you that sense of euphoria, which is typical

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Speaker 2: of the stimulants. So it certainly gives you that feel

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Speaker 2: good feeling and sort of exhilaration, you know, like you.

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Speaker 2: I've never tried using drugs myself, but that would certainly

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Speaker 2: be consistent word with the reporting of people that have

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Speaker 2: used it.

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Speaker 1: Okay, all right, So this is the overconfidence I suppose

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Speaker 1: from that stimulation that police talk of the fact that.

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Speaker 2: Correct, yeah, yeah, go on yeah, and certainly associated with

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Speaker 2: that the inability to make reasonable decisions. So when you're

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Speaker 2: driving under the influence, you know, it might be so

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Speaker 2: with risky behavior or distraction, you know, the sense of

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Speaker 2: being in control and so on, and certainly that is

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Speaker 2: not something you want to have when you're driving a

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Speaker 2: motor vehicle.

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Speaker 1: Would somebody have an argument then to say, well, I

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Speaker 1: took it three days ago. It might still be in

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Speaker 1: my system, but I'm not affected by it. That is

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Speaker 1: that a reasonable argument to put up.

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Speaker 2: Look, three days after you've taken it, chances are slim

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Speaker 2: that you will test positive. So certainly the test and

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Speaker 2: the amounts that will give a positive test will be

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Speaker 2: indicative probably of use of this substance within the previous

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Speaker 2: twenty four hours. Three days later. No, you wouldn't be

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Speaker 2: testing positively.

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Speaker 1: Anyway, Okay, I knowed to state they in the first

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Speaker 1: six months. Numbers are relatively small. Six months three hundred

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Speaker 1: offenders caught in Queensland, so that would probably indicate what

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Speaker 1: you're saying. It passes through the body relatively quickly.

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Speaker 2: That's right. And look, the fact of the matter is

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Speaker 2: people are testing positive for a variety of drugs, more

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Speaker 2: so than for alcohol at the moment, which probably means

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Speaker 2: they're done. Drive under the influence of alcohol. Campaign is

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Speaker 2: quite successful, but the message for drug use has perhaps

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Speaker 2: not quite come through yet. But certainly you would imagine

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Speaker 2: because our normal wastewater monitoring shows that the substantial use

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Speaker 2: of cocaine in the community, and it has been increasing

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Speaker 2: in recent times, and accordingly that would be why the

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Speaker 2: police is now trying to incorporate it into their drug

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Speaker 2: testing suite. And certainly I would not be surprised if

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Speaker 2: he In South Australia, a good proportion of users of

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Speaker 2: cocaine are actually driving, but since they're not caught out,

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Speaker 2: they continue to do so, and that is a risk

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Speaker 2: and probably accounts for some of the road rage behavior

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Speaker 2: we see on our roads.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes where does cocaine come from.

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Speaker 2: Look, it is mainly a drug that's associated with that

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Speaker 2: sort of South and Central America, Mexico, those places, that

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Speaker 2: whole Gulf of Mexico, the region of South America, and

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Speaker 2: then it is distributed from the worldwide. So it's mainly

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Speaker 2: that growing region over there where we receive our cocaine from.

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Speaker 1: Okay, And obviously then in border force, I'm sure they

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Speaker 1: probably intercept a percentage of it. Obviously not all of

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Speaker 1: it if it's so high in wastewater.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, correct, Look border force some of the results that

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Speaker 2: they report. I think a recent study said something like

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Speaker 2: ten percent of what they believe is in the market

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Speaker 2: is being seized now that drugs across the board. It

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Speaker 2: may not be cocaine specifically, but certainly cartels are starting

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Speaker 2: to market or target Australia because it's a lucrative market.

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Speaker 2: We play a lot of our drugs compared to other countries,

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Speaker 2: and I suppose that is why cocaine is becoming so popular.

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Speaker 1: Is it mixed with other drugs? I mean, does it

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Speaker 1: get used in making myth or anything else?

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Speaker 2: No? No, no, it isn't used to make other drugs.

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Speaker 2: But it's certainly mixed with other drugs, and unfortunately depends

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Speaker 2: how you look at it. Cocaine is a drug that

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Speaker 2: most users prefer to users on its own, but the

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Speaker 2: local drug supply is increasingly being mixed in with other

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Speaker 2: harmful substances, including opioid like substances. People may have seen

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Speaker 2: the alerts around nazines. These our deadly compounds and they

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Speaker 2: are mixing with cocaine, so for users unaware, really that

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Speaker 2: is a problem, which is why all the health messaging

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Speaker 2: and alerts are going out. Some people do mix it

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Speaker 2: with other drugs just to modulate the effect a little bit,

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Speaker 2: so you know, the cocaine gives you that high and

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Speaker 2: some people want to modulated moderate a little bit. The

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Speaker 2: reality is, because cocaine has a relatively short half life

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Speaker 2: or a short effective response in the body, most people

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Speaker 2: just use it as the drug of choice when they

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Speaker 2: do so. But yeah, certainly users can't guarantee that whatever

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Speaker 2: they purchase is not mixed with anything else, and that

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Speaker 2: probably is part of the concern around it. It'sues.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, indeed, all right, fascinating insight. Cobus. Thank you so

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Speaker 1: much for your time.

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Speaker 2: No, it's a pleasures

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Speaker 1: Asking associate Professor Gerber from the Department of Clinical and

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Speaker 1: Health Science as unis a