Fewer Australians faced illicit drug charges in court in the last financial year compared to the previous year, according to recent data by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
The figures showed drug offences brought before the courts dropped nine per cent in 2023-24, with a little more than 38,000 offenders nationwide.
Males comprised of 74 per cent of defendants in such cases.
The data encompassed all illicit drug-related crimes including possession, selling, cultivating, dealing or trafficking, manufacturing and importing or exporting.
In a statement, the ABS crime and justice statistics head Samantha Hall suggested the decrease in numbers was consistent with a downward trend in cases since 2018.
“Around 20,000 fewer defendants faced illicit drug charges in 2023–24 compared to 2018–19,” she wrote.
“This was mainly due to a drop in drug possession or use offences in court, down 34 per cent from 2018–19.”
Senior Sergeant Chris Taylor said the police handled drug-related incidents in Esperance, but not as many as “other places”.
“[Drug-related incidents] become more anti-social crime, so it leads to a lot of family violence that’s probably the main part of it,” he said.
“Stealing would be the main [crime here] but family violence incidents take up most of our time.”
Esperance-specific data on drug affiliated crime is not available but Senior Sargeant Taylor said he thought the number of drug offences in Esperance had not changed in recent times.
“That’s nationwide data but I would say it’s stayed pretty much the same here,” he said.
