Disruption to Australian heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and ecstasy markets with the COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Changes to drug markets can affect drug use and related harms. We aimed to describe market trends of heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and ecstasy in Australia following the introduction of COVID-19 pandemic-associated restrictions.

Methods

Australians residing in capital cities who regularly inject drugs (n ∼= 900 each year) or regularly use ecstasy and/or other illicit stimulants (n ∼= 800 each year) participated in annual interviews 2014-2022. We used self-reported market indicators (price, availability, and purity) for heroin, crystal methamphetamine, cocaine, and ecstasy crystal to estimate generalised additive models. Observations from the 2014-2019 surveys were used to establish the pre-pandemic trend; 2020, 2021 and 2022 observations were considered immedia

SUBMITTER: Price O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9932690 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature