This report presents the results from the seventh year of a study monitoring ecstasy and related drug (ERD) trends in Victoria. A feasibility trial of this research was conducted in 2000 and 2001 in New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia, and in 2002 the study was continued in those jurisdictions. 2003 marked the first year of a two-year national trial of the study, with the addition of capital cities in Western Australia, the Northern Territory, the Australian Capital Territory, Tasmania and Victoria.
The demographic characteristics, patterns of drug use and perceptions of the price, purity and availability of ERD among a sample of regular ecstasy users (REU) are described in this report. Their perceptions of the effects of drug use (e.g. benefits and risks), personal wellbeing, health risk behaviours and criminal behaviour are also reported. These findings are triangulated with information from key expert (KE) and secondary indicator data sources in an attempt to minimise biases and weaknesses inherent to each source of data. These methods are employed to gain an understanding of the current ERD markets in Melbourne, Victoria. Where appropriate, 2009 findings are compared to findings from the previous years and implications of the results and the nature and characteristics of ERD markets are discussed.