Drug use affects individuals, families and the community. Every 3 years, people in Australia are asked about their use and opinions of licit and illicit drugs, including alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, e-cigarettes and vapes.

More than 21,000 people across the country took part in the latest National Drug Strategy Household Survey, held in 2022 and 2023. This report presents findings from the survey and looks at what has changed over the past 20 years.

Some quick key headlines:

• Cannabis remains the most widely used illicit drug, with 2.5M Australians using it recently.  Overall recent illicit drug use has increased from 3.4M (2019) to 3.9M, primarily driven by increases in hallucinogen use (now the 3rd most commonly used illicit drug type).
• Daily tobacco smoking rates have decreased from 11% (2019) to 8.3%, particularly for people under 60 years, however e-cigarette use has increased by 4.5% (2.5% to 7%) with people aged 18-24 years having the biggest jump in current e-cigarette use (5.3% to 21% now).
• Recent use of methamphetamines/amphetamines is low (1% or 200,000 people)
• There has been a slight decline in the rates of people consuming alcohol in a way that put their health at risk (32% in 2019  and 31% now)
• Women aged 18-24 years are more likely to consumed alcohol and other drugs now than in 2019 and recent use of any illicit drug is at equal rates between young men and women (35%).
• Support for stricter policies designed to reduce excessive alcohol consumption declined, while support for policies targeting problems associated with e-cigarettes increased
• Support for drug checking (64% support) and drug consumption rooms (53% support) increased
• Support for law enforcement responses to illicit drug use continued to decline while support for treatment and education continued to increase. 

Access the findings here.