Opiod deaths exceed heroin related deaths by at least 2 to 2.5 times
EASILY accessible and legal painkillers are claiming more lives than heroin. The NSW Coroner’s Court heard yesterday that opioid deaths were now at record levels with hundreds of people killed every year. But heroin wasn’t to blame.
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EASILY accessible and legal painkillers are claiming more lives than heroin.
The NSW Coroner’s Court heard yesterday that opioid deaths were now at record levels with hundreds of people killed every year. But heroin wasn’t to blame.
“Opioid deaths increased (nationally) by 60 per cent in 2011-2015 compared with 2001-2005,” counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer told the inquest into six opioid deaths that occurred in May 2016.
“Pharmaceutical opioid deaths in Australia now exceed heroin deaths by a significant margin — two to 2.5 times.”
Ms Dwyer said it was the “reverse” of what was seen in the 1990s.
The group included five men and one woman, who cannot be identified and who died in homes or hotels over the month. One of them was just a short walk away from the Kings Cross injecting room.
And half of them had fentanyl in their system — the pain-relief drug that’s sparked a “public health crisis” in the US. Ms Dwyer said one schizophrenic overdose victim had been prescribed the highly potent synthetic opioid, 100 times stronger than morphine.
“A particular issue, in this case, is why that drug was prescribed (and) whether it was appropriate,” Ms Dwyer said.
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Illegal manufacturing of the drug in the US had caused a “public health crisis” with a significant spike in addiction rates and related deaths, Ms Dwyer said.
“One high-profile case was the death of Prince, the music artist, who died after taking a counterfeit painkiller laced with fentanyl,” she said.
But the inquest is also expected to hear expert evidence that fentanyl is on the rise in regional Australia, where heroin is in shorter supply.
Last month The Daily Telegraph revealed that The Australian Criminal Intelligence Agency had confirmed the drug was a major problem in rural communities across the nation, through its March report into drugs found in wastewater.
“Some regional centres in almost every state had values well above the national average,” the report said.
And Australian Border Force Assistant Commissioner Tim Fitzgerald has previously told the Telegraph users were obtaining the drug online via the dark net.
“These are deadly products ... killing hundreds of people a day across the US and Europe,” he said. “The smallest contact with this sort of product can be deadly.”
Illicit fentanyl use often involves dissolving legally available dermal patches, then injecting the potent solution.
NSW Health estimates there may be up to 750,000 Australians dependent on opioids. The inquest will explore the need for real-time prescription monitoring to avoid “doctor shopping” and the provision of supervised injection rooms.
And the inquest will consider the need for greater availability of naloxone, a “lifesaving” drug that can reverse opioid overdoses, Ms Dwyer said.