The wastewater report, issued by Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, is used as a tool to better understand drug use across the country and monitors 57 sites across city and regional areas, including one in the ACT at the Molonglo treatment plant.

The collection data covers a little over half the Australian population.

The April 2022 report revealed that methamphetamine use is climbing across the country, while heroin use remained relatively stable.

An unexpected outcome was the national decline in all other drugs, which the commission's chief executive officer and former ACT top cop Michael Phelan said could be partially attributed to success in law enforcement reducing supply.

However, he said that most local drug markets are close to returning to pre-COVID settings.

"Methamphetamine consumption increased in both capital city and regional areas in April 2022, which likely reflects a return to more normal supply levels for importations and domestic manufacture," he said.

He indicated that some of the crime groups in Europe, which are key suppliers of ecstasy to Australia "appear to be transitioning ... to methamphetamine and this appears to be impacting supply of the Australian market".

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The ACT, Tasmania and Adelaide had well above average oxycodone consumption in April 2022. Researchers believe that fluctuations in opioid detection during the pandemic were possibly a consequence of restrictions "causing the postponement of elective surgery and medical treatment".

Sydney remained Australia's cocaine capital but supply tightened significantly over the reporting period in the wake of Operation Ironside, a massive, covert multi-jurisdictional operation which kicked into action midway through last year and has so far seen 6.7 tonnes of illicit drugs seized and 389 offenders charged.

More than 1.3 tonnes of cocaine were seized by police in NSW alone in 2021.

In March this year, 416kg of cocaine with a street value of $166 million was seized in South Australia - the highest in that state's history - when Border Force officers raided a bulk carrier which had dropped off the drugs at sea. A cabin cruiser found abandoned off the coast was seized, and several Filipino foreign nationals were charged.

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