Credit score: Australian authorities/screenshot
Individuals who use medicine are more and more making an attempt to cut back hurt—by acquiring the life-saving drug naloxone and testing their medicine—in response to new knowledge.
However they’re doing this in an at all times dangerous and unpredictable surroundings, the place entry to some harm-reduction companies, corresponding to drug testing, is proscribed or politicized.
These are among the key take-home messages from annual survey knowledge launched immediately.
This is what else we and our colleagues discovered after talking with lots of of Australians who use medicine.
Annually, researchers from the Nationwide Drug and Alcohol Analysis Heart at UNSW Sydney, and companion organizations, communicate with lots of of individuals throughout Australia who use unlawful or non-prescribed medicine.
These surveys kind a key a part of two long-running nationwide research, one specializing in individuals who use ecstasy and different stimulants, the opposite on individuals who inject medicine.
The Ecstasy and Associated Medication Reporting System surveyed 690 individuals who recurrently use ecstasy and different stimulants, corresponding to cocaine and methamphetamine, throughout all Australian capital cities.
Total, patterns of drug use and market indicators—corresponding to perceived availability and worth of medication—had been comparatively secure in comparison with 2024.
Nevertheless, these surveys solely seize substances folks meant to make use of—that’s, what they believed they had been shopping for and taking. We can not monitor when folks unknowingly take adulterated substances.
Drug alerts have detected potent artificial opioids, corresponding to nitazenes in medicine offered as MDMA, ketamine and cocaine. These substances may cause overdose even in very small quantities, and individuals who use stimulants could not understand they’re in danger.
That is why it is so encouraging to see a rise in consciousness and uptake of naloxone—a drugs obtainable with no prescription that may reverse opioid overdoses.
Amongst individuals who use ecstasy and different stimulants, 73% had heard of naloxone (up from 63% in 2024). Some 19% had obtained it up to now yr—a major bounce from simply 6% the yr earlier than.
You may search a web-based model of this map to seek out out the place you possibly can entry naloxone in Australia. It’s also possible to entry the total listing of drug alerts issued in Australia.
We additionally noticed continued engagement with drug checking, with 39% reporting that they had examined their medicine up to now yr.
Of those that had examined their medicine, 71% used private testing kits, together with reagent take a look at kits and testing strips. However these provide restricted info on the substances contained and their purity.
In the meantime, 43% of those that had engaged in drug checking up to now yr accessed extra complete testing by means of a drug checking service. That is regardless of drug checking not being obtainable in lots of components of Australia, and the place it’s obtainable, companies could also be restricted.
If these companies had been extra extensively accessible, it is possible much more folks would use them to cut back the chance of hurt.
This makes current political choices—such because the Queensland authorities’s transfer to ban drug checking companies—particularly regarding.
What about individuals who inject medicine?
The Illicit Drug Reporting System carried out surveys with 865 folks in 2025. This focuses on individuals who inject medicine, many utilizing heroin and different opioids.
In 2025, 80% of members had heard about naloxone, up from 73% in 2024—the best degree since monitoring started. Some 65% reported having obtained naloxone at the least as soon as of their lifetime, up from 54% in 2024. Some 55% had achieved so up to now yr, up from 46% in 2024.
This reveals what an evidence-based drug coverage can obtain. In 2022, the Australian authorities made naloxone free for all Australians vulnerable to experiencing or witnessing an opioid overdose.
In 2025, 32% of the individuals who inject medicine we spoke to mentioned that they had resuscitated somebody utilizing naloxone at the least as soon as of their lifetime. This was up from 27% in 2024. Some 18% had achieved so up to now yr.
What else did we discover?
These surveys additionally monitor traits in authorized and non-prescribed substances.
One hanging discovering is the continued excessive charge of tobacco use amongst each teams—a pattern that hasn’t shifted a lot in additional than 20 years.
However what has modified is the supply. Most individuals who smoke are actually utilizing illicit tobacco, and this has elevated considerably since final yr.
Amongst individuals who inject medicine, 63% reported current use of illicit tobacco, up from 46% in 2024. Amongst individuals who use ecstasy and different stimulants, 46% reported current illicit tobacco use, up from 27% in 2024.
This growing pattern in illicit tobacco use is one we plan to discover additional, as we and others are more and more involved concerning the implications for public well being.
Vaping is one other space of curiosity. Current legislative adjustments have banned the importation of disposable vapes and have restricted gross sales to pharmacies. However only a few members who use ecstasy and different stimulants reported acquiring vapes by means of pharmacies. As an alternative, 65% mentioned they had been acquiring vapes from different sources, together with comfort shops, and principally disposable ones. This implies present laws to limit entry is probably not working.
Trying forward
If we need to cut back drug-related hurt in Australia, we have to help the folks most affected.
This implies increasing entry to drug checking companies, not limiting them. It means recognizing individuals who use medicine are already taking steps to guard themselves—and that coverage ought to assist them achieve this extra safely.
The success of the nationwide naloxone program reveals what’s attainable when governments put money into hurt discount.
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