Penington Institute CEO John Ryan speaks to ABC News about the growing toll of preventable overdose deaths.
New figures released by the Penington Institute reveal a sobering statistic: 2,272 Australians died from drug overdoses in 2023, the equivalent of losing a Boeing 737 full of people every month. Despite this, John Ryan, CEO of Penington Institute, says the overdose crisis continues to be treated with “deplorable inaction.”
Speaking to ABC, Ryan said:
“The overdose toll has long exceeded the road toll … it's a huge problem that gets very little attention compared to other causes of death."
Penington Institute’s analysis, based on ABS data, shows that nearly 80% of these deaths were unintentional, and the majority occurred in private homes – far from the stereotyped settings people might expect. Opioids remain the leading cause, but stimulant-related deaths, especially from methamphetamine, continue to rise.
Ryan is renewing calls for a national overdose strategy, highlighting the urgent need for greater investment in harm reduction:
“We’ve got a real mismatch between what the evidence shows and what government is doing.”
While the government continues to invest heavily in law enforcement, Ryan argues that effective tools like naloxone, drug checking, overdose education, and supervised consumption services remain underfunded.
He also stressed the importance of public education around recognising and responding to overdoses:
“There are many deaths that result from people not knowing the signs of an overdose, let alone knowing how to respond.”
Read the full article, “Boeing 737 full of Aussies dying of drug overdoses every month, researchers say”, published by ABC News on 1 July 2025.