The median income in the ACT sits at around $85,000, which is not only by far and away the highest of any state and territory in the country, but it probably goes a long way to explaining this yarn.
We all saw the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission‘s ‘National Wastewater Analysis Drug Monitoring Program,’ the study that circulated last week and showed the drug-taking habits of Australians thanks to the highly glamorous scientific pursuit of analysing the piss and poo of various states to detect traces of illicit substances.
Unsurprisingly, the runaway winner across the nation was ice, which featured heavily in all states and territories.
Canberra, however, is a little bit different. Not only is the level of ice usage largely below the national average in the nation’s capital, but the instances of cocaine usage are well above those of everywhere else.
Not only that, but prescription drugs oxycodone and fentanil recorded higher instances of usage in the ACT than anywhere else in Australia. Whether or not that’s legitimate or recreational use is, quite obviously, not able to be measured purely by analysing waste water.
The study showed that, for every 1000 Canberrans, daily usage sits at around 18 for ice, 3 for cocaine, seven for fentanil, six for oxycodone, and one for MDMA.
Previous studies have shown that around 10% of Canberrans use marijuana, and its exclusion from this study has caused some criticism from competing alcohol and drug authorities.
But overall, Canberra’s numbers are anomalies in regards to the rest of the country.
In a city full or politicians and public servants, who would’ve thought that rail projects would a higher focus?
Source: Canberra Times.
Photo: Saturday Night Live/NBC.
