New research reveals cashed up tradies are outpacing young professionals as the prime market for cocaine dealers

Australian traffickers have become the new cash cow for cocaine dealers who previously focused on high-paying white-collar professions, according to new research.

The number of plumbers, carpenters and electricians using the illegal substance has doubled, data from Flinders University shows.

Male tradies aged 18 to 24 have become the largest market for cocaine; one in eight have admitted to using the drug, which costs about $300 per gram.

Flinders University researchers Alice McEntee, Ann Roche and Susan Kim found the number of workers working as tradies who used cocaine had doubled to almost one in ten.

The researchers published their scientific findings based on the National Drug Strategy Household Survey (NDSHS), which collects information on illicit drug use and alcohol and tobacco use among Australians.

The research also found that the number of people consuming cocaine in Australia is now four times the number of people using the drug in 2004.

Anecdotally, one builder said he was forced to take drastic action to curb cocaine use after his staff continued to test positive for the drug.

‘We’ve had a lot of people on coke. I’ve had to let people go because I took random drug tests and they failed because of cocaine,” the builder said. News Corp.

“It used to be marijuana because it stays in your system longer, but now it’s coke, it’s 100 percent more common.”

Another person who works in the construction industry said people are talking about the substance in workplaces and more tradies are buying the drug because they can now afford the expensive product thanks to bigger pay packages.

Builders and construction industry workers said they noticed more workers on construction sites talking about the illegal substance (pictured).

CFMEU national secretary Zach Smith, one of the senior leaders of Australia’s largest construction union, said the health and safety of industry workers will always be the main priority.

Mr Smith told the newspaper that despite the study’s shocking findings, the construction sector should not be classified as an industry prone to cocaine consumption.

“Demonizing workers in one of Australia’s most dangerous industries is completely unfair, as cocaine use is obviously not isolated to any industry,” Mr Smith said.

The latest NDSHS survey found that almost one in five Aussies had used an illicit drug between 2022 and 2023.

The number of Australians who used cocaine between 2019 and 2023 increased by 4.5 percent.

A construction worker said more tradies are buying the drug because they can now afford to buy the illegal substance (photo stock image)

Construction workers have been incentivized by new wage deals to increase their weekly earnings.

Construction unions in Queensland have successfully negotiated a deal with Queensland Premier Steven Miles to increase wages for industry workers by $10 an hour over the next four years until 2027.

The pay increase means qualified craftsmen and carpenters will be paid almost $1,948 per week.

Wages for crane operators will rise to $2,394 and a fourth-year electrical engineering apprentice will earn $44 an hour.