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Speaker 1: Already and this is the daily. This is the daily,

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Speaker 1: This is the daily. Ohs oh, now it makes sense.

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Speaker 1: Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Thursday,

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Speaker 1: the fourteenth of March. I'm Sam, I'm zara. Australians are

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Speaker 1: using more cocaine, methamphetamine and MDMA, but they're drinking less alcohol.

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Speaker 1: That is all, according to new sewerage analysis by the

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Speaker 1: Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission.

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Speaker 2: The Commission has been testing Ozzie wastewater since twenty sixteen

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Speaker 2: and publishes regular findings on drug trends. We'll tell you

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Speaker 2: what its latest report tells us about drug use in

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Speaker 2: the country. But before we do, Sam, what's making headlines.

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Speaker 1: We've read this headline before. Donald Trump and Joe Biden

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Speaker 1: have each secured enough support to lead their parties into

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Speaker 1: November's presidential election. It paves the way for a Trump

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Speaker 1: fee Biden White race and the first US presidential election

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Speaker 1: rematch in sixty eight years. Both major parties will hold

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Speaker 1: national conventions in the coming months, where their presidential and

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Speaker 1: vice presidential nominees will be formally confirmed.

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Speaker 2: The Australian Council of Trade Unions the ACTU, is urging

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Speaker 2: the fair Work Commission to protect an employee's right to

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Speaker 2: work from home. In a submission to Fair Work, the

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Speaker 2: ACTU said flexible work benefits cares, people with the disability

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Speaker 2: and parents. It's part of a review to update legislation

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Speaker 2: to include work from home guidelines. It said employers should

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Speaker 2: only be permitted to refuse a request to work from

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Speaker 2: home on reasonable grounds. The review will hand down its

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Speaker 2: final report on the twenty eighth of June.

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Speaker 1: Violence is continuing in Haiti amid growing concerns over its

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Speaker 1: collapsing healthcare system. The country's Prime Minister, Ariel Henry resigns

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Speaker 1: this week after gang leaders set thousands of prisoners free

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Speaker 1: from jails across the country, calling for him to step

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Speaker 1: down as leader. The UN says shipments of medicine and

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Speaker 1: food aren't getting in, meaning its aid workers are struggling

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Speaker 1: to treat people, including patients with gunshot wounds.

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Speaker 2: And the good news, one of the world's tallest tree species, redwoods,

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Speaker 2: which are able to capture large amounts of carbon dioxide,

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Speaker 2: are thriving in the UK. Research led by UCL recorded

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Speaker 2: rapid growth among redwoods, which it said are an effective

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Speaker 2: way to reduce carbon emissions. Native to California redwood trees

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Speaker 2: were introduced to the UK one hundred and sixty years ago.

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Speaker 1: Czara. Australia's sewage holds a lot of secrets. Actually went

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Speaker 1: down about forty meters underneath the North bond Di cliffs

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Speaker 1: this time last year into the sewage system. It was

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Speaker 1: quite a confronting smell. But there's so many secrets in

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Speaker 1: that sewage that official law enforcement authorities actually rely on

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Speaker 1: regularly analyzing it. Why what are these Well, what they

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Speaker 1: get from it is a really clear understanding of national

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Speaker 1: drug trends. So the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission is a

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Speaker 1: government agency that gathers data to combat threats like foreign

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Speaker 1: interference and organized crime, and they have just released a

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Speaker 1: new report this week into national drug use.

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Speaker 2: So I imagine a lot of people are fascinated by

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Speaker 2: this information, not only because it uses waste to pain

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Speaker 2: a picture about what drugs ozsies are taking where, but

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Speaker 2: also because this data helps police track organize crime networks.

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Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, and it's a really interesting representative sample of

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Speaker 1: the country. Sewage from about half of the Australian population

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Speaker 1: gets analyzed during these studies. So if you're sitting on

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Speaker 1: the bus right now, about half the bus has had

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Speaker 1: their waste analyzed by this group. So to learn more

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Speaker 1: about the latest findings, I'm speaking today with the Criminal

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Speaker 1: Intelligence Commissions Acting National Manager of Data Analytics, Shane Nilsen. Shane,

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Speaker 1: thanks for joining us on the daily OS this morning.

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Speaker 3: Good morning, happy to be here.

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Speaker 1: Take me right back to the beginning of collecting data

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Speaker 1: for this new drugs report that you and your team

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Speaker 1: have released. How do you actually collect that information.

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Speaker 3: What we've done is selected a cross section of capital

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Speaker 3: city and regional sites across the country. What we aim

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Speaker 3: to do is to get at least fifty percent of

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Speaker 3: the population, and on this occasion we got fifty seven percent.

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Speaker 3: And everyone who takes drugs and other substances and has

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Speaker 3: a sewerage system provide the metabolides go through their body

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Speaker 3: and into the wastewater system that goes to treatment plants

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Speaker 3: in the local area. Before it gets into the treatment facility,

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Speaker 3: we sample it and what that does then is the

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Speaker 3: universities who do our analysis for us are able to

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Speaker 3: identify the substances that are in the sample, but also

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Speaker 3: so the quantities of consumption of those substances.

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Speaker 1: So you've essentially gone through a heap of sewage. You've

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Speaker 1: got fifty seven percent of the country represented in that.

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Speaker 1: What are your standout findings from this year's reports.

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Speaker 3: What we found was that in year seven of our program,

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Speaker 3: which ran and ended in August twenty twenty three, a

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Speaker 3: total of sixteen point five tons of methylon fetamine, cocaine, heroin,

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Speaker 3: and MDMA was consumed by the population.

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Speaker 1: Within a twelve month period.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, within that twelve month period. Yeah, so that's a

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Speaker 3: lot of drugs, and that was an increase of seventeen

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Speaker 3: percent or two point three tons from the previous year.

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Speaker 3: And what we found as part of that was that

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Speaker 3: large increases were really down to methylon fetamine, where consumption

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Speaker 3: increased by one point five tons, and also cocaine, where

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Speaker 3: it increased by about seven hundred kilos national.

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Speaker 1: Did those findings surprise you, Shane.

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Speaker 3: Well, certainly, the increase in methyl and phatamine was a concern.

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Speaker 3: What we assess was happening is that these markets were

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Speaker 3: returning largely to pre COVID levels. There were significant reductions

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Speaker 3: in the consumption of meth and cocaine during the COVID

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Speaker 3: period when there are restrictions across the country. And so

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Speaker 3: what we think is happening now is there's a correction

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Speaker 3: and the consumption is getting back to levels where they

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Speaker 3: were before COVID restrictions were introduced.

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Speaker 1: So if we go one step deeper than and we

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Speaker 1: start talking about particular cities or states, yes, are there

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Speaker 1: any kind of trends within that scope that are particularly

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Speaker 1: enlightening for you?

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Speaker 3: What we tend to find is there's a sameness to

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Speaker 3: that at different times and different substances. For example, Sydney

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Speaker 3: always is relatively high in terms of cocaine can consumption,

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Speaker 3: and New South Wales generally is relatively high with cocaine consumption.

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Speaker 3: Melbourne is generally very high with heroin consumption, with methyline

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Speaker 3: phetamine its West Australia, South Australia is a general rule

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Speaker 3: and so on. So from time to time you do

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Speaker 3: get situations where the same sort of jurisdictions have the

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Speaker 3: same levels of high consumption of these drugs.

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Speaker 1: And did you notice any differences between the regions and

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Speaker 1: the cities.

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Speaker 3: Yes, we did. In fact, we look at this generally

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Speaker 3: every time the report comes out. What we find and

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Speaker 3: we found that in August twenty twenty three was no different.

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Speaker 3: Was his substances like cocaine, heroine, ketamine, and MDA, they

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Speaker 3: tend to be higher in the capital cities, but all

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Speaker 3: the rest of the drugs, including methylne phetamine, cannabis, et cetera,

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Speaker 3: are higher in the regional areas. Is per capita, but

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Speaker 3: it holds true and that's a concern because obviously in

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Speaker 3: regional areas there's less law enforcement resources, less treatment resources

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Speaker 3: to go around.

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Speaker 1: Were there any substances that went down in the last

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Speaker 1: twelve months or is everything kind of trending up into

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Speaker 1: the right.

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Speaker 3: No, Well, heroin reduced over the past twelve months, so

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Speaker 3: that was good news. Heroins remain relatively constant over the

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Speaker 3: period that we've monitored since twenty seventeen. And so what

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Speaker 3: it does is tends to vary between a fairly narrow range.

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Speaker 3: Australia tends to be an illicit stimulant country, so methylne

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Speaker 3: fhetamine in cocaine in particular and to a lesser extent

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Speaker 3: MBMA or ecstasy that tends to be the substances that

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Speaker 3: are most consumed.

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Speaker 1: And what do you kind of suggest that we do

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Speaker 1: with this information, like where do we go with this data?

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Speaker 1: Are you hoping that this helps US form policy precisely.

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Speaker 3: There's a number of things. The first thing, because we

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Speaker 3: do this every four months with a larger annual report

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Speaker 3: like the current one, what we want to do is

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Speaker 3: for anyone who wishes to in the general public to

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Speaker 3: look at this and sort of reflect on what the

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Speaker 3: implications are of the level of drug use and also

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Speaker 3: trends in drug use. We measure consumption and therefore the

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Speaker 3: demand for drugs, and really what that is is decisions

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Speaker 3: by thousands of Australians every day to take or not

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Speaker 3: take the substances that we monitor. So we identify what

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Speaker 3: substances are being used where and in what quantity. We

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Speaker 3: can provide unique regional insights, but often with other data

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Speaker 3: sets aren't available simply because of the population, sizes, etc.

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Speaker 3: And the difficulty is of getting done. We're able to

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Speaker 3: work out the values of our illicit drug markets, which

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Speaker 3: in the twelve month last twelve month period was about

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Speaker 3: twelve point four billion dollars. Well and consider the implications

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Speaker 3: of that. Yeah, and this is at a time when

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Speaker 3: household budgets were being stretched as never before. So we

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Speaker 3: also importantly, and this is where the rub really is,

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Speaker 3: is that we can identify priority areas for responses and

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Speaker 3: the types of substances that should be prioritized for a response,

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Speaker 3: and we work with our law enforcement and health partners

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Speaker 3: in relation to that, and so that's one of the

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Speaker 3: most important aspects of wastewater analysis.

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Speaker 1: Shane. Just a final question from me, and apologies if

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Speaker 1: this is a silly one, but is there ever a

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Speaker 1: world where sewage samples can be used to directly provide

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Speaker 1: evidence to law enforcement of a particular household's drug consumption?

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Speaker 1: Could that be used as a lead for police.

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Speaker 3: We wouldn't do that, and very important reasons for that.

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Speaker 3: It's because it's water analysis doesn't have ethical problems in

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Speaker 3: terms of interfering with individual privacy. It measures population use

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Speaker 3: of substances, right, and so individual privacy is respected. I

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Speaker 3: mean there's no hidden populations, which is very good, but

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Speaker 3: no either can we like, as you said, go to

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Speaker 3: an individual's house and say, right, you know, the people

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Speaker 3: in this house are doing X or Y in terms

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Speaker 3: of their drug consumption. So that's one of the advantages.

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Speaker 3: So it's a balance of very useful information but in

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Speaker 3: a way that respects individual privacy.

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Speaker 1: Shane, I really appreciate your time. Thanks for joining us

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Speaker 1: on the Daily Ours this morning.

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Speaker 3: No Where is it All?

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Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Sam, Thanks for listening to today's episode.

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Speaker 2: We would love to hear what you thought of it.

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Speaker 2: If you're listening on Spotify, you can let us know

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Speaker 2: by answering the Q and A. It's just below the

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Speaker 2: episode and we love reading your responses every single day.

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Speaker 2: We'll be back again tomorrow, but until then, have a

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Speaker 2: fabulous day.

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Speaker 1: My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda

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Speaker 1: Bungelung Kalkadin woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges

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Speaker 1: that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the

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Speaker 1: Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres

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Speaker 1: Strait Island and nations.

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Speaker 2: We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries,

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Speaker 2: both past and present.