A drug overdose death is recorded almost every month in Maribyrnong, analysis of national data has shown.
Australia’s Annual Overdose Report 2017, by non-profit organisation Penington Institute, shows that Australians are dying from overdose in increasing numbers. The report stated that 42 people died from an overdose in Maribyrnong between 2011 and 2015, more than 25 per cent higher than the national average.
Penington Institute chief executive John Ryan said increased deaths as a result of ice, heroin and prescription medication are an alarming wake-up call that more needs to be done to tackle avoidable overdose deaths.
“We need better community education for people who are experimenting with drug use before they become addicted,” he said.
The Overdose Report stated that drug overdose deaths were twice as high as the annual road toll.
Since the early 2000s, the number of Australians aged 30-59 who overdosed has more than doubled.
Mr Ryan said insecure housing, expensive treatment and scant availability of support services were compounded by a punitive approach that pushes people who use drugs further into a cycle of crime and poverty.
“We need to do more to give people a chance to recover,” he said. “Reducing barriers around medical treatment will provide many people who use drugs with a way out of a cycle of criminal activity and incarceration.”
Mr Ryan said stigma and shame in relation to drug use and addiction is one of the great barriers for people who are seeking help.
The report follows a study released last year showing CCTV cameras have failed to reduce the sale or use of injecting drugs on Footscray streets.
The study by the Burnet Institute, based on a study of more than 680 injecting drug users, found the main effect of the cameras was to shift injecting heroin and ice use from public toilets on to streets farther from the cameras.
