The peptide boom is changing frontline practice. Is your service ready?
For years, performance and image enhancing drug (PIED) use has been closely associated with anabolic steroids and bodybuilding.
That picture is changing rapidly.
A new ABC News report highlights growing concern from needle and syringe programs across Australia, where services are seeing a marked increase in people seeking injecting equipment for peptides. Some services report demand has grown so quickly that it is placing pressure on needle supplies, raising concerns about access for other people who inject drugs.
This is more than a new drug trend. It signals a changing client population that many alcohol and other drug workers may not yet recognise.
People using peptides are seeking them for a wide range of reasons, including:
- Weight loss
- Muscle growth
- Injury recovery
- Anti ageing
- Skin improvement
- Physical performance
Many don't identify as ‘drug users’. Instead, they may see peptides as part of a health, fitness or self improvement routine, influenced by social media, online forums and fitness communities.
Some peptide medicines are approved for use in Australia. However, many of the products currently promoted online are not. These unregulated products have not been assessed for safety, quality or effectiveness, and testing has shown that some contain different ingredients or doses than those stated on the label.
The changing market is already being reflected in frontline services. Tasmanian needle and syringe program data found that transactions related to performance and image enhancing drugs increased from 3.3% in 2019 to 13.6% in 2026, reaching 20.7% of all transactions in northern Tasmania.
While these figures cannot be used to estimate population prevalence, they clearly demonstrate that services are encountering peptide and other PIED use far more frequently.
For alcohol and other drug workers, this has important implications.
If we continue to rely on outdated stereotypes of who uses PIEDs, we risk missing opportunities to identify use, provide harm reduction advice and engage people in conversations about their health. Many clients will not volunteer this information unless practitioners know what to ask and how to ask it in a knowledgeable, non-judgemental way.
Our From Peptides to Steroids: Responding to performance and image enhancing drugs workshop has been developed to help practitioners respond confidently to this rapidly evolving landscape. The workshop provides practical, evidence informed skills to identify, assess and respond to peptide and other PIED use, including who is using these substances, why they are using them, and how to apply effective screening, motivational and harm reduction approaches.
The peptide market is evolving quickly. Our clinical knowledge and practice need to evolve with it.
Service and workforce improvement can be challenging. The real world is messy, and working on the frontline you need clear practical solutions that work.
We provide practical tailored solutions for any service who works with people who use drugs. We support better responses to alcohol and other drug issues in mental health, primary care, welfare, justice and education sectors, as well as the specialist alcohol and other drug sector. Learn more about how 360Edge can help your service.
Are you interested building your skills in responding to alcohol and other drugs? Check out our diverse range of clinical practice workshops.
