Drug-related crime is a growing problem all across Victoria. While Australia’s favourite city attracts attention through its nightlife, architecture and the label for being the sporting capital of the world, the misuse of drugs can significantly damage the state’s reputation. Regional areas also face significant challenges linked to drug use.
This presentation explores patterns of drug offences across Victoria to understand:
Data: Crime Statistics Agency (Victoria), Year ending June 2025
As we saw in the bar chart, the share of offences are very much similar comparing both Regional and Metro Victoria. Regional Victoria has a higher Cannabis share, while Metro Victoria shows a larger Prescription share.
While we had a look at what the shares are comparing both regional and metro, it doesn’t tell us what the difference really is. Let’s have a look at some box plots.
While the shares are very much similar, drug offences in Metro Victoria are significantly higher overall. It also shows a wider spread meaning that Regional LGA cluster much lower. This suggests that the larger the population, the more active drug markets are.
After looking at what region of Victoria experiences the most offences, let’s have a deeper look at which LGAs offend the most
As seen in the bar chart, Melbourne is on top, but for the wrong reasons. Melbourne recorded 26,163 total drug offences from July 2024 to June 2025. This is nearly double the next highest LGA, Greater Dandenong, recording 13,772 total offences.
Now that we’ve seen how much a drug problem Melbourne has, in comparison to the rest of Victoria, let’s have a look at what specific Drug Offences make up the numbers.
As seen in the Pie Chart, you can see the proportion of drug offences in Melbourne. The 2 highest offending drugs are Cannabis, well known as Weed, with a whopping 23.1% of the offences, closely followed by, Methamphetamine, also known as Meth, 21.1%.
Yes. Melbourne clearly has a drug problem. It records the most drug offences, has multiple high-risk LGAs, and shows strong drug activity driven by cannabis and meth.