The number of Australians dying from drug overdoses each year has almost doubled in the last twenty years according to a new report. 80% of those were unintentional, and almost half of those involved opioids. The Penington Institute is calling for a national overdose prevention strategy, saying the current inaction on the issue is 'deplorable'.
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00:00Jen Furby lost her 25-year-old daughter Nicole to overdose in May 2022.
00:08Often I'll have a moment of realisation that I'm never going to see her and I just cannot believe it.
00:16Nicole died with four different drugs in her system.
00:20A report from the Pennington Institute found 73% of unintentional overdose deaths involved two or more drug types.
00:28Opioids turned up in 80% of those deaths, followed by benzodiazepines, antidepressants, stimulants and alcohol.
00:37Heroin is driving the increase in opioids and experts are also worried about the increasing risk of powerful synthetic opioids such as fentanyl and nitazines.
00:46The problem is that they're appearing in counterfeit pharmaceuticals but they're also appearing in cocaine and in heroin.
00:54The data shows deaths involving stimulants are also increasing.
00:58In relation to Indigenous Australians we've got a huge overdose problem, about four times worse than the general population in Australia.
01:06Pennington Institute Chief Executive John Ryan is calling for a national overdose prevention strategy.
01:12He says less than 2% of the drug budget goes to harm reduction, while two-thirds goes to law enforcement.
01:18Even though we know that we can't arrest our way out of these problems.
01:22The Federal Health Minister Mark Butler has labelled the report findings as concerning and in a statement said
01:28the government is actively monitoring the emergence of nitazines alongside continued reforms and investments in drug treatments.
01:36Nicole was Jen's only child. Her grief will be with her forever.
01:41She was my best friend and I'm pretty darn sure if she was sitting here with us today she'd say the same about me.
01:47She wants people who use drugs to be part of the conversation about how to save lives.