More than 14,000 Australians have died from accidental drug overdoses since 2008. The number of Australians dying from accidental drug overdoses has climbed by almost 40 per cent in the last decade, and now exceeds the national road toll by several hundred people each year. More than 1,600 Australians died from an accidental drug overdose in 2017 Prescription opioids and multiple drug use are driving record-high rates of drug-induced deaths Latest figures show a sharp rise in heroin and methamphetamine overdoses The latest figures, released today as part of Australia’s 2019 Annual Overdose Report, reveal a dramatic spike in the number of overdose deaths involving heroin or illicit stimulants such as methamphetamine (or ice) in the last five years. But it’s prescription opioids that continue to cause the majority of overdose deaths; they were involved in 53 per cent of all accidental drug-induced deaths in 2017. "It’s time to […]