Suburbs where Aussies are dying from drug overdoses

A deadly cocktail of prescription pills combined with illegal street drugs is driving accidental overdoses to record levels. SEE IF IT’S NEAR YOU

A deadly cocktail of prescription drugs combined with illegal street drugs is driving accidental overdoses to record levels to the point where experts are claiming we’re heading towards a US-style drug crisis.

The number of Australians dying from unintentional overdoses has skyrocketed by almost 38 per cent over the past 10 years.

Opioids caused the most deaths in 2017 and pharmaceutical opioids were responsible for over half (53 per cent) of these unintentional overdoses involving this class of drug.

In 2018, opioids were made prescription only but a News Corp investigation found prescriptions for the drugs soared afterwards with some people taking stronger doses.

Sleeping pills (benzodiazepines), and stimulants like methamphetamine (ice), amphetamines and ecstasy were the next most common causes of unintended drug deaths, a new report from public health research and drug policy organisation Penington Institute revealed.

There was a nearly a three-fold increase in unintentional deaths involving stimulants like methamphetamine (ice) and ecstasy in the five years to 2017.

There were a total of 2162 total (unintentional and intentional) drug-induced deaths in Australia in 2017 and 1612 of these were unintentional.

Opioids are the biggest killer. Picture: istock.

Opioids were the biggest killer causing 904 unintentional drug-induced deaths in 2017, equating to 56.1 per cent of all unintentional drug-induced deaths.

These included 344 deaths linked to prescription oxycodone, morphine and codeine and 198 deaths linked to prescription fentanyl, pethidine and tramadol and 189 deaths involving methadone.

The report also found:

• There was a 2.4-fold increase in unintentional heroin overdose deaths from 149 to 358 since 2012;

• Unintentional deaths involving benzodiazepines including diazepam and temazepam have more than doubled from 256 in 2008 to 583 in 2017;

• Deaths from methamphetamine and ecstasy increased in the last five years from 156 to 417;

• A new neuropathic prescription drug pregabalin (Lyrica) contributed to 67 deaths, up from 11 deaths in 2015.

Males accounted for seven in 10 of the unintended drug induced deaths and those aged 30-59, not the younger generation, were most at risk.

MORE NEWS

Private patients first in public hospitals

Greedy public hospitals are secretly billing you

John Ryan, CEO of Penington Institute says a key factor in many of the unintentional deaths is people mixing multiple drugs and alcohol which severely depresses their ability to breath.

Over 440 unintentional overdose deaths were attributed to the presence of four or more substances, 2.7 times higher than the figure of 163 from just five years ago

“Alcohol is a depressant, cannabis, opioids and pain killers are depressants, they all suppress breathing so when you take them together you don’t get enough oxygen to the brain,” Mr Ryan said.

“It’s time to call this what it is: Australia’s very own overdose crisis. And make no mistake, it’s a crisis that is getting worse.”

Australia does not have enough alcohol and drug treatment facilities or specialists to cope.

The rise in unintentional heroin overdoses was reminiscent of the worsening of the North American opioid epidemic, as patients increasingly turned from prescription opioids to illicit drugs like heroin, fentanyl and ice because they could not access treatment, he said.

Australian Medical Association emergency medicine spokesman Associate Professor David Mountain said people were not educated about the risks of taking multiple substances together.

“They think because they are prescription drugs they are safe but they need to be clear they shouldn’t mix them with illegal drugs or alcohol,” he said.

The problem usually occurred when people coming of a drug binge and used benzodiazepines or opiates to reduce the side effects of coming down, he said.

It was little known that Australians were among the heaviest users of illicit drugs and narcotics in the world, he said.

“We have an alcohol problem but our use of illicit drugs is much higher per head of population than other countries,” he said.

Australia needed two to three times more drug and alcohol services they we currently have to deal with our drug problem, he said.

Originally published as Suburbs where Aussies are dying from drug overdoses