As we launch Australia’s Annual Overdose Report 2024, Penington Institute CEO John Ryan discusses the increasing threat of nitazenes in Australia with the Sydney Morning Herald.
In this article, ‘Terrifying potency’: The overdose-inducing drug invading suburbia, The Sydney Morning Hearld crime and justice reporter Amber Schultz highlights the rising number of opioid overdose deaths in Australia, as revealed in our new report.
Penington Institute’s Australia’s Annual Overdose Report 2024 found the number of Australians who died from a drug overdose each year had once again hit a record high in 2022 – with opioids accounting for nearly half of all unintentional overdose deaths.
The emergence of potent synthetic opioids in Australia
CEO John Ryan said synthetic opioids such as nitazenes – which can be hundreds of times stronger than heroin – were of key concern.
“Dangerous drugs, like nitazenes, are increasingly entering suburbia and country towns,” Ryan said.
“I’m tired of seeing overdose numbers in this country rise year upon year. Each time we publish this report, it is so distressing to think of the increasing number of people and families consumed by this tragedy every year.”
Read the article, ‘Terrifying potency’: The overdose-inducing drug invading suburbia, published in The Sydney Morning Herald on August 25, 2024.
