Medicine clamp to be killer

Overdose spike tipped

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

The fear is that when realtime prescription monitoring and new restrictions on codeine come into force next March, thousands of Australians addicted to over-thecounter pain killers will move to harder drugs, such as heroin and fentanyl.

“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,” Penington Institute chief executive John Ryan said.

Craig Harvey, Barwon Health’s harm reduction team senior clinician, said tightening access to painkillers would not magically see those addicted to painkillers suddenly free of their addictions.

Mr Harvey said far more needed to be done to treat those who would either be cut off or referred for treatment for misusing painkillers and called for a TAC-style education campaign.

For every death in a car accident, two people are dying from accidental overdose, the Pennington Institute’s annual Overdose Report 2017 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 — claimed 221 lives in 2015, only 45 fewer than claimed by heroin. AMPHETAMINES now claim almost as many lives as accidental alcohol overdoses thanks 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.

The data also shows that Australia, particularly regional areas, continues to be ravaged by the drug ice.