THE most common person Australians buy illicit drugs from is not a drug dealer but a friend or good acquaintance. And the most common place drugs are bought is not a street or a club, but a lounge room.

Roger Nicholas at the National Drug Law Enforcement Research Fund found that while huge profits are made at the top of the drug chain, at the bottom “the markets for illicit drugs are to a significant extent friendship-based ... motivated by a desire to amass social capital rather than financial capital”.

About 70 per cent of illicit drug buys are from friends and acquaintances.

Indeed, it is “a common practice to give and receive gifts of illicit drugs [especially cocaine]. This is perhaps akin to the practice of bringing a bottle of alcohol when invited to a friend's house for a meal.” The National Drug Strategy Household Survey found about 70per cent of illicit drug buys had been made from friends or acquaintances, with the exception of heroin, for which the proportion was less than 36 per cent. Most of these transactions occur in homes, and those engaged in them have no (other) criminal connections, and many do not consider themselves to be involved in illegal activity.

This behaviour reflects the growing importance of Generation Y's friendships? and it raises enormous problems for police trying to stop drug sales.