Dire warning on overdoses

Step from painkillers to hard drugs

AUSTRALIA is on the verge of a new drug overdose epidemic, with experts warning a crackdown on prescription medication misuse is set to send our already climbing rates of accidental overdose deaths surging even higher.

The fear is that when realtime prescription monitoring and new restrictions on codeine come into force in March, thousands of Australians already addicted to overthe-counter painkillers will move to harder drugs like heroin and highly potent fentanyl.

The warning is contained in the Penington Institute’s annual Overdose Report 2017, released yesterday.

Institute CEO John Ryan said: “When Australians addicted to pharmacy-based opioid drugs face new restrictions, there is a very high risk they will move to illicit drugs to sustain their addiction — risking death as organised crime syndicates turn to potent opioids such as fentanyl and carfentanil to profit from people’s misery.”

The warning comes as Australia experiences a resurgence in heroin overdoses.

For every death in a car accident, two people are now dying from accidental overdose, the report reveals.

Drug overdoses claimed the lives of 2023 Australians in 2015 — the latest year for which national data is available — and three in four of those deaths were accidental.

The report shows accidental overdoses involving: CODEINE, morphine and oxycodone are claiming 500 lives a year, up from 189 in 2003. FENTANYL — a synthetic opioid 100 times more potent than heroin — continues to grow and claimed 221 lives in 2015, just 45 fewer heroin. AMPHETAMINES now claim almost as many lives as accidental alcohol overdoses due to the continuing impact of ice, with more than 220 annual deaths.

“The data illustrates that the real front line in Australia’s overdose crisis is often the household medical cabinet,” Mr Ryan said.

“Behind the catastrophe of sustained and increased accidental overdose in many parts of Australia is a nation increasingly dependent on opioid painkiller medications.

“These medications are often taken without any awareness of the potential overdose risk that they pose.”

The data, prepared by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, also shows that Australia, particularly regional areas, continues to be ravaged by the drug ice.