Regional Victorians are using dramatically more ice, alcohol and nicotine than their Melbourne counterparts who seem more partial to cocaine, a new analysis of the state's sewage has found.
The first drug testing of waste water in regional Victoria found twice the amount of methamphetamines compared to metropolitan Melbourne, raising concern about a lack of rehabilitation and health resources available for users.
The result, discovered in June and July last year, estimated that 1.8 grams of the drug was being consumed per day per 1000 people in regional Victoria. In Melbourne during March last year, the result was just under 1 gram.
According to the Victorian drug trends report from 2015, ice users reported paying about $75 to use 150mg in a typical "session".
The water testing, performed by Turning Point and Monash University, also estimated that 20 litres of alcohol was being consumed per day per 1000 people in regional areas compared to 13.5 litres in Melbourne in March 2015.
Tobacco consumption was estimated to be 3307 cigarettes per day per 1000 people in regional areas, compared to 1850 in Melbourne.
While there was a similar level of MDMA (also known as ecstasy) found in both regional and Melbourne waste water, Melburnians were consuming a lot more cocaine - 245mg per day per 1000 people compared to 77mg in regional areas.
In 2015, participants in the Victorian drug trends report said they used about 0.3 of a gram of cocaine in a typical "session", costing them about $100.
Dr Belinda Lloyd, who presented the data at the APSAD Scientific Alcohol and Drugs Conference on Monday, said she hoped it would assist research into drug use, and the allocation of health services for people with drug and alcohol problems.
At the same conference, Professor Ann Roche, Director of the National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction at Flinders University, said a separate study showed teenagers in rural areas and men aged 18 to 25 were using more ice than their urban counterparts.
At the same time, she said data showed no increase in the number of people accessing help for drug use in rural areas of Australia.
"We need to urgently establish whether existing support services simply don't have the capacity to deal with demand for drug treatment, or whether there are other significant reasons," she said.
Professor Roche said rural communities with lower socio-economic demographics and greater levels of isolation were targeted by drug dealers.
Sam Biondo from the Victorian Drug and Alcohol Association said although the Victorian government had funded some non-residential services for people struggling with drug and alcohol use in recent years, there was still a shortage of services.
Mr Biondo said there were waiting lists of up to 6 months for drug rehabilitation across the state, with more services concentrated in Melbourne. Private, non-accredited services were trying to fill the gap, he said, charging up to $30,000 a month.
"There is still very large unmet demand across the community," he said.
In Victoria's ice action plan, the government promised to invest $18 million "to expand drug treatment, focusing on rehabilitation for users in rural and regional areas".
So far, it has announced $10 million to improve some alcohol and drug facilities and $6 million for an 18-20 bed mental health facility in the Grampians region. It is unclear if this is for people with a range of mental illnesses, not just substance abuse.
A spokeswoman for Mental Health Minister Martin Foley said: "We are working to address the challenges regional communities face when it comes to alcohol and drugs."
