Surge in women selling drugs

The number of women selling illegal drugs in WA has soared 78 per cent in a year, according to a report into Australia's drug trade.

The Australian Crime Commission report shows 626 women were "providers" of illicit drugs in WA in 2011-12.

The women represented more than 22 per cent of those arrested for importing, trafficking, selling, growing and manufacturing illicit drugs in the State. Only the Northern Territory had a higher percentage at 28 per cent while Queensland recorded the highest overall number of women at 710.

The report said Customs seized a record 24 tonnes of illicit drugs - worth $5 billion - in Australia last year, including a big rise in performance enhancing drug seizures.

Big hauls included 11 tonnes of a methylamphetamine precursor, 785kg of cocaine, 256kg of heroin, 347kg of amphetamines and 17kg of cannabis.

There were 93,000 drug-related arrests in 2011-12, the most for a decade, and 809 drug laboratories were found.

In WA, there were more hallucinogenic drugs found, including LSD and "magic" mushrooms, than anywhere else in the country, with a 1255 per cent increase in the amount detected - from 748g in 2010-11 to 10,137g in 2011-12.

The head of illicit drugs at ChemCentre, Dominic Reynolds, said that although WA seizures included the traditional hallucinogenic drugs, these still tended to be fairly rare. WA still has the most pure heroin at 46 per cent, though the amphetamine found had a sharp decline in purity from 25 per cent in 2010-11 to just one per cent in 2011-12.

Dr Reynolds said this variability put drug users at risk, particularly when a substance was sold as one drug when it was something else.

"In the case of amphetamine-type substances, this could be one of the emerging synthetic drugs which we know little about," he said.

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Surge in women selling drugs