'Luxury' item cocaine sells at premium - Sydney Morning Herald

Cocaine is a ''luxury'' product in Australia, with users paying up to four times as much for the drug as those in Britain, a survey has found.

The global drug survey, conducted in Australia this year in partnership with Fairfax Media, found that about 20 per cent of the 6600 Australian respondents had used cocaine in the past year, and 45 per cent in their lifetime.

The survey provides insights into the drug habits of Australia's well-paid professionals. Respondents were mostly from Sydney or Melbourne and more than half had tertiary qualifications. About 65 per cent earned above-average incomes, with a quarter earning more than $100,000 a year.

Cocaine was the most popular choice for those trying a drug for the first time, and users paid about $300 a gram.

Survey founder and psychiatrist Adam Winstock said that was four times the price that was paid in Britain, where cocaine was typically $75 a gram, resulting in less usage here.

Half of Australian cocaine users were offered ''luxury cocaine'' for about $400 to $450 a gram with the promise it was of better quality, and almost all who tried it agreed.

Those surveyed ranked cocaine the poorest value for money of commonly used drugs, according to those surveyed. They scored it 2.5 out of 10 on a scale in which zero represented very poor value and 10 was excellent.

''It's a luxury item here,'' Dr Winstock said. ''People who've got lots of money use coke and if you're on benefits and doing crime, you do crystal [methamphetamine].''

On a ranking of harms, users scored cocaine second after tobacco for ''money worries or problems''. Those surveyed ranked cocaine second after ecstasy for making them feel happy and confident, and increasing pleasure from social interactions.

Government statistics show cocaine use has been rising since 2004. It is most popular among educated, high-earning city dwellers.

Professor Shane Darke, of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, said cocaine was a highly dangerous drug that damaged heart muscles and clogged arteries. There was a risk of fatal heart problems even for first time users, he said.

''It has persistent and cumulative effects and if you think that you're protected because you're not injecting it and just snorting it on weekends, that's fantasy,'' he said.