Paying through the nose for cocaine - Sydney Morning Herald

Illustration: Cathy Wilcox

Cocaine is a ''luxury'' product in Australia, with users paying as much as four times for the drug as those in Britain, a global drug survey finds.

The 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 had taken it in their lifetime.

The respondents were mostly from Sydney and 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 paid in Britain, where cocaine was typically $75 a gram. As a result, Australian users took a smaller amount of cocaine per session than their British peers.

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

Those surveyed ranked cocaine as offering the poorest value for money of all commonly used drugs. They scored it 2.5 out of 10 on a scale in which zero represented very poor value and 10 was excellent. This was similar to cocaine's ranking in Britain, Dr Winstock said.

''The consistent thing between the UK and Australia is both rated coke as being the worst value for money drug … and yet the difference in price is four-fold.

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

Asked about the negative consequences of their drug taking, respondents ranked cocaine second after tobacco for causing them ''money worries or problems''. They ranked cocaine second after ecstasy for making them feel happy and confident, and increasing pleasure from social interactions.

Federal government statistics show that cocaine use has been increasing since 2004 and the drug is most popular among educated, high-earning city dwellers.

Consumption has risen most sharply among young women in their 20s, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's 2010 drug survey shows.

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, and the damage increased every time people used the drug.

''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.

Nine per cent of cocaine users in the survey said they would like to use the drug less, and 2 per cent said they would like help to cut down or stop taking it.

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