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Drugs

New South Wales has the Cheapest Pills in Australia

The wholesale price of an ecstasy pill works out about the same as a cup of coffee.
Gavin Butler
Melbourne, AU
Image via Shutterstock

In New South Wales, an ecstasy pill costs the same as a cup of coffee. Anywhere between $3.70 and $4.50 a piece. That’s if you buy it wholesale, in one kilogram bundles, and divvy it up into 100 milligram hits. According to a recent report by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Committee, there’s no cheaper place in the country to buy a pinger.

Compare this to Queensland, the most expensive state for ecstasy, where the wholesale price per pill works out to be about $6, and it’s little wonder that NSW is the state with the greatest appetite for uppers: responsible for consuming a total 427 kilos of MDMA a year. Depending on drug market trends, it’s also the state where you’ll find the best bargain on coke—in some cases reported as being just $200 a gram. Ice, too, is cheaper here than anywhere else in the country, with cases of 100 milligrams of crystal being priced at a measly $30.

It’s worth pointing out, though, that NSW drug prices suffer more price variance than any of the other states and territories. In some cases that bag of coke could set you back as much as $600; that 100 milligrams of ice could cost you $150; and at street value, the price of MDMA ranges from $15 to $45 a pill.

Not comfortable with that variance? Head to South Australia, where the price of MDMA is consistently $4.50 a pill wholesale, or $20 a pill on the street. Cocaine is a steady $330 a bag. And despite police shutting down a record number of clandestine labs and seizing almost 50 kilograms of chemicals used to manufacture methylamphetamine, according to Adelaide Now, ice remains at a constant $50 per 100 milligrams.

“The pricing depends on information from people who have been spoken to during seizures, it also depends on supply,” said Tony Crameri, South Australia Police’s Serious and Organised Crime Detective Chief Inspector. “If there is an influx of drugs, there may be some impact on market trends.”

So while the NSW market may be peppered with some of the country’s cheapest drugs, it is also the most susceptible to disruption. By the time all the variances balance out, the median price of ecstasy and meth in SA works out to be cheaper. And unsurprisingly, SA is also the only state in the country where MDMA use is on the rise.