By David Kavanagh | posted on August 29, 2019
UNINTENTIONAL drug overdose deaths in Albany have more than tripled in the span of 10 years, placing the region on the casualty list of what some have called a nationwide “overdose crisis”.
A new report from public health not-for-profit Penington Institute showed that in the five-year period from 2013 to 2017, a total 24 people in Albany died from unintended overdose.
This was marked as a 243 per cent increase from the seven deaths recorded between 2003 and 2007.
Penington Institute Chief Executive Officer John Ryan referred to the fatalities in the region as “24 too many” and said Western Australia was being “hit hard by [the nation’s] overdose crisis”.
“The rate of deaths from unintentional overdose in regional WA is 45 per cent higher today than a decade ago,” he said.
“This points to a massive failure to provide the kind of services and interventions that we know save lives.”
According to the report, illicit opioids like heroin and over-the-counter pharmaceutical opioids like codeine and oxycodone were the drugs most commonly detected in unintentional overdose deaths in the state.
This was followed by benzodiazepines, which include depressant drugs like diazepam and temazepam, and stimulants.
WA currently has the highest rate of deaths in the country involving oxycodone, morphine and codeine, as well as the second highest rate of heroin-related deaths.
“[The report] also tells us that the risk profile is becoming more diverse,” Mr Ryan added.
“Many of the different drugs that Australians are overdosing on are perfectly legal. Unintentional overdoses affect people from all walks of life.”
Manager of Palmerston Great Southern Ben Headlam said pharmaceutical and illicit opioids were “an emerging concern in the Great Southern”.
He said the issue was “tied up with global politics and trends” and referenced the heroin and fentanyl crises in the United States and the decline of the Taliban and ISIS in the Middle East, which has led to a worldwide increase in opium poppy production.
“Certainly Australia can have a tendency to follow drug trends occurring in the US and elsewhere, although there is some delay,” he said.
“What we are starting to see is that trend starting to materialise in the Great Southern. For the first time in a decade or more, we actually see heroin … in our top five drugs of concern.”
Mr Headlam referred to the development of a Naloxone or ‘NARCON’ nasal spray, which blocks opioid receptors and can temporarily reverse the effects of overdose, as a key strategy in combating overdose deaths nationally.
In February, Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt announced a $7.2 million two-year pilot trial of a take-home naloxone program.
“For people using opioids, the challenge is that effective treatment requires both medical input, like prescription and opioid replacement therapy, as well as counselling and support,” Mr Headlam said.
“In order to set up for what could be a growing demand for services and treatment for opioid addiction, we need to look at how services are structured in the Great Southern.”
