Fatal drug overdoses continue to climb as advocates slam 'deplorable' government inaction
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.