The Australia Annual Overdose Report 2023 highlights that since 2001, Australia has seen more than 37,000 drug-induced deaths.
The report is being released to coincide with the International Overdose Awareness Day on 31 August, which is the largest global campaign to end overdose.
John Ryan, the CEO of the Penington Institute, says it is clear where the government should be placing its efforts. He spoke with Adriana Wainstok.
TRANSCRIPT
JOHN RYAN:
We do the overdose report because we want to really inform the community about an issue that's often not talked about. And there's a lot of shame and stigma associated with overdose. So holding up a mirror to the Australian community is really important so that we understand the overdose problem in Australia. And I think what's most disturbing about that is that the report shows that overdoses have continued to exceed the road toll for nearly 10 years now.
And we've lost 37,000 Australians since 2001 from overdose. So it's a huge number of people. Every four hours another person dies from overdose. So it's a huge problem, but it doesn't get the attention it deserves, including from from government.
ADRIANA WAINSTOK:
And why doesn't it get attention?
JOHN RYAN:
It's an uncomfortable area of conversation. We're talking about life and death, that's already very uncomfortable. But we're also talking about drug use issues - and that's a very uncomfortable topic for many people in the community. We've got a lot of division around this.
But sadly, pharmaceutical drugs are a major contributor to the overdose toll. So is alcohol. And obviously, illegal drugs are part of it as well. But it really is obvious that it's a mainstream problem that's touching people from regional and rural Australia, right across the socio-economic spectrum.
But we really like to pretend that it's somebody else, not general members of the community, but people on the margins. That's not true. It's actually people in the suburbs, and people in the inner city and people in country towns
ADRIANA WAINSTOK:
And how many of these deaths are self-harm - and how many are accidental?
JOHN RYAN:
The last year that data is available, there was 2,231 overdose deaths. Seventy-five per cent of them were unintentional.
So the fact that three-quarters is unintentional just shows how much opportunity we've got to actually prevent overdose deaths. And they are preventable, but we've just got to take the actions required to prevent them.
ADRIANA WAINSTOK:
Do you think the reason is a lack of information?
JOHN RYAN:
I think there's a lot of need for community education around drugs, especially combining different drugs. For example, combining the anti-anxiety or sleeping medications, benzodiazepines with pain relief, drugs, opioids, and alcohol, for example. That's a very common combination. And those drugs amplify each other and so increase the overdose risk.
We need people in the community to understand the risks of drugs, but also how to identify an overdose and how to intervene. And if it's an opioid overdose. You can intervene with Naloxone if you have got it and you know how to use it. It's a miracle overdose reversal drug for opioids. But it's not in the hands of enough people who are potential overdose witnesses.
And it's certainly not well understood, like epi-pens, for example, in the broader community. So the community education piece is really important. But so too (an important piece) is governments actually stepping up and dealing with the issue with the seriousness that it deserves.
If it does exceed the road toll, how come we're not really making a big effort to reverse the overdose toll as we've made a big effort to reverse the road toll?
I think it's absolutely tragic that we've lost 37,000 people since 2001. But imagine if, in 20 years' time, we keep bumbling along with a hodge-podge approach, which is what we've got now, we'll lose another 37,000-plus people.
I think it really needs a linked-up government approach. It's a complex problem. So it needs all governments working together with the community and the experts.
ADRIANA WAINSTOK:
How do we compare - how does the data in Australia compare with other places in the world?
JOHN RYAN:
We're doing better than some countries. Obviously, the problem in the United States is absolutely shocking. Their big difference from us is that they've got a huge fentanyl problem, which is a synthetic opioid. The same applies to Canada and so they've seen their overdose numbers skyrocket, particularly due to fentanyl.
We don't have yet in Australia, a big illicit fentanyl problem, but we could get it at any moment. It's a real risk and we should be preparing for that by getting people into treatment and community education - and linked-up government.
But we're not doing as well as other countries like for example, Portugal or Netherlands or Switzerland. And I think the evidence from those countries is that we need to have innovation in the way that we deal with these issues.
We've had very little innovation since 2000. Nothing much has changed in this area. People continue to die. And so we're continuing the same approach, even though it's proven to be ineffective. So we really need to look overseas to see what we can bring home to Australia in learnings; and what we shouldn't copy in Australia. So I think we really need an Australian approach for the unique circumstances. We can learn from overseas. But we shouldn't be slaves to what's happening overseas.
