Australia's Annual Overdose Report

As Penington Institute approaches a decade of producing this report, Australia reaches a somber milestone—42,000 overdose deaths since the turn of the century. Despite progress in drug policy over the years, inadequate governmental leadership and jurisdictional blame games exacerbate the anguish and frustration among grieving families and communities affected by the ever-mounting overdose toll.

To truly acknowledge the devastation that follows the loss of a loved one to drug overdose, the policy tide must turn. Our leadership must take on the responsibility of establishing an effective National Overdose Prevention Strategy in Australia and I recoil at the thought of this taking any longer than it already has.

We face a paradox: drug overdoses cascade and the community aches, yet health-focused drug reforms in Australia which were once unimaginable are succeeding. Harm minimisation efforts in Queensland, Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, and Victoria include supervised injecting sites, drug checking services, and programs to improve access to the life-saving opioid overdose reversal medication naloxone.

These developments deserve recognition, but they remain far too small-scale; harm reduction measures like these account for a scant two per cent of state and federal drug policy funding. It is undeniable that this sector achieves a great deal on a fraying shoestring budget to save lives and protect the community, but our efforts should be based on sustained support, not heroism.

Global drug supplies are becoming more unpredictable and dangerous, increasing the risk of people experiencing unexpected adverse events. Notably, the emergence of nitazenes and other contaminants in the Australian market underscores the urgent need to improve drug literacy in the community and combat the dangers of the unregulated drug market.

We know it is possible for social and policy attitudes to shift dramatically – just look at the acceptance of mental health as an issue requiring empathy and resources. Is it possible that drug policy will follow a similar path, with comprehensive, holistic care as the standard? The community is ready for nationwide drug education, and this is the time for governments to act.

To build on the extensive work in this report, I want to highlight our five priority recommendations for a National Overdose Prevention Strategy—because despite gradually expanding harm minimisation efforts in Australia, we need a comprehensive strategy to ensure overdose victims, their families and our communities are not overlooked. This strategy would include:

1. Education: Commit to nationwide education efforts so every Australian understands the risks of an overdose and how to respond effectively.
2. Naloxone: Ensure naloxone is readily available to potential overdose witnesses across the country in settings such as libraries, social services, hospitals, police officer first aid and home first aid kits.
3. Medication assisted treatment: Remove the many barriers to the most cost-effective treatment for opioid dependence, pharmacotherapy.
4. Drug checking: Embrace drug checking, not only at festivals but in the community, where dangerous drugs, like nitazenes, are increasingly entering suburbia and country towns.
5. Supervised consumption: Established needle and syringe programs can be cheaply reconfigured as mini overdose prevention sites, saving lives across the vast array of locations where overdoses occur.

In this report, you’ll learn that in 2022 there were 2,356 drug-induced deaths in Australia, equating to approximately six lives needlessly lost each day. You will also read that the rate of unintentional drug-induced deaths is significantly higher among Indigenous Australians compared to non-Indigenous Australians; that overdose impacts every region of Australia; and that it is a leading cause of death across most adult age groups. And once again, the report demonstrates that overdose deaths exceeded Australia’s road toll in 2022.

It’s with the presentation of this devastating data that I am compelled to ask that evidence-based approaches to reducing drug-related harm be embraced with the urgency and seriousness that the people and communities affected by overdose deserve.

Thank you to the volunteer advisory committee and the Penington Institute team, especially Rafaella Caltabiano and Dr Karen Gelb, for their hard work on the development of Australia’s Annual Overdose Report 2024.

John Ryan

CEO, Penington Institute