Key Points
- The Australian Drug Trends 2024 report is based on feedback from 740 people who regularly use so-called party drugs.
- 54 percent of those surveyed said they used non-prescribed pharmaceutical stimulants.
- The most commonly taken medication is a medication used by people with ADHD.
More and more people are taking medications for attention deficit disorder that were not prescribed to them.
A monitoring system designed to quickly identify raw trends through data has shown an increase in the number of people who regularly use ecstasy or other illicit stimulants, taking non-prescribed pharmaceutical stimulants.
The Australian Drug Trends 2024 report summarizes the results of the National Ecstasy and Related Drugs Reporting System, in which 740 people who regularly use so-called party drugs were surveyed.
Consumption of non-prescribed pharmaceutical stimulants increased to 54 percent among those surveyed in 2024, up from 47 percent the previous year.
When monitoring began in 2007, 17 percent of respondents said they were using nonprescribed pharmaceutical stimulants.
Although this consumption decreased slightly in 2023, the consumption of these substances has increased steadily, to the point that consumption has tripled within this group.
Pharmaceutical stimulants include medications commonly prescribed to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and narcolepsy.
According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), “people who use pharmaceutical stimulants for non-medical purposes may aim to increase alertness, concentration and memory, or to cause a drug experience, whether or not there is evidence of these drugs being effective when not prescribed.”
The number of Australians being prescribed medication for ADHD has more than doubled in the five years to 2023, with more than 400,000 people now taking medication for this common neurodevelopmental disorder, as doctors and the public are more and more aware.
The authors of the Australian Drug Trends 2024 report wrote in an article in The Conversation that “as prescriptions increase, there is an increased risk that these substances will be diverted into illicit drug markets.”
Dexamfetamine was the most widely reported non-prescribed pharmaceutical stimulant taken by respondents, followed by Ritalin.
According to the report, “the price of a 5 mg tablet decreased significantly in 2024, from $6 in 2023 to $5, although perceived availability remained stable.”
A large majority of participants also told investigators that they usually swallowed their drugs, but results showed an increase in those who had snorted drugs.
Although the report’s findings are not representative of all people who use drugs or even illicit drug users in the general population, the report’s findings are intended to provide “indicative evidence of trends that warrant further monitoring.” .
In 2022-2023, according to the AIHW, 5.5% of Australians reported non-medical use of a pharmaceutical stimulant in their lifetime, equating to approximately 1.2 million people in Australia.
Stimulants can increase heart rate, blood pressure and respiratory rate, which could lead to acute cardiac events, while long-term use can also impact heart function.
