Secret labs and more arrests point to growing drug problem

CANBERRA - Australia's criminal drug entrepreneurs are boosting production at secret laboratories amid increasing arrests and ominous signs that heroin and cocaine may be making a comeback.

This disturbing picture of the narcotics underworld has emerged from the Australian Crime Commission's latest illicit drug report, released yesterday by Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor at Melbourne's Odyssey House drug rehabilitation centre.

"Visiting the people here brings home the importance of this data and the work that is being done by Australian law enforcement agencies," O'Connor said.

"We shouldn't think of such reports as facts and figures on a page, but as tools to help us combat the devastating health, social and economic effects of drug use in Australia."

Last year illicit drug arrests across the nation rose by 7 per cent to almost 84,000, with an increasing number linked to amphetamine-type stimulants such as speed and crystal meth (known as P in New Zealand), and to a resurgent heroin. More than 13 tonnes of illicit drugs were seized - almost 70 per cent more than law agencies uncovered a decade ago.

The report says that while cannabis remains Australia's dominant illicit drug - most of it home-grown in hidden plantations and hydroponic gardens - amphetamine-type stimulants are a serious and growing threat.

Ecstasy is now second only to cannabis, and in terms of prevalence Australians use more of the drug annually than people in any other country.

The report says the nation is following global trends: the manufacture and trafficking of amphetamine-type drugs is one of the greatest challenges facing law enforcement agencies.

Sources of the drugs and the precursors used in their manufacture include Southeast Asia, China, Mexico and the European Union, with illicit manufacturers increasingly diverting supplies of precursors from legal domestic sources.

Traffickers are also placing orders with legitimate pharmaceutical companies, sending consignments to developing countries - many in Africa - that have few controls.

In Australia, border authorities last year intercepted fewer shipments, but the total weight of seized amphetamine-type drugs rose by 58 per cent to more than 416kg.

And local manufacturers are on the rise, fuelled by imported precursors.

More than two tonnes of precursors destined for domestic production were detected at the border last year, almost double the amount intercepted during the previous 12 months.

The chemicals were hidden in shipments including fruit juice containers, granite marble boxes, flat-pack furniture and brass statues.

The report warns that bulk importations of precursors are likely to continue because of tight controls on local supplies.

It says a record 449 clandestine drug laboratories were uncovered across the nation last year, most of them producing amphetamines and similar drugs.

This represents an increase of 26 per cent on the number of laboratories found the previous year.

Although less common, some also produce other drugs including "homebake" heroin and cannabis oil using processes that the report warns involve significant risks to surrounding communities through their use of volatile and toxic chemicals.

The report further warns that the heroin market may be about to expand after a decline from the peaks reached earlier in the decade.

The weight of national heroin seizures more than doubled, and their number rose by almost 20 per cent.

Similarly, the report says the proportion of Australians reporting recent use of cocaine to the 2007 national drug strategy household survey reached its highest level since 1993. Arrests and other factors suggested the market was expanding.