Commencing in 2016, the National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program analyses wastewater treatment facilities around the country for a number of substances. The include cocaine, alcohol, amphetamines, cannabis, and more.
The latest report released in February 25 revealed that Australians are continuing to break record levels of cannabis consumption around the country – despite police seizing more than $203 million worth of black market cannabis in 2020.
For cannabis, the results are presented in mg THC / 1000 people / day. The previous report covering consumption in April 2020 estimated that figure at around 15,500 mg of THC to 16,000 mg of THC. The most recent report, covering consumption in August & October 2020, puts the mg of THC at around 20,000. Showing that cannabis consumption increased by around 25% in five months.
Here is a comparison of the April 2020 results and the August & October 2020 results.
With a population of 25.5 million, an average THC content of 15%, and consumption at 20g of THC / 1000 people – that gives us around 3,391,500 grams of cannabis consumed every day, or 3.4 tonnes.
As consumers generally purchasing in various quantities, from a single gram up to an ounce (28 grams), we’ll assume the average purchase price per gram is around $15. Leading us to value the Australian cannabis market at $18.5 billion.
This is a 25.4% increase from the previous estimated valuation of $14.8 billion based on the April 2020 consumption figures.
You can read the full report here.