The city of Maribyrnong has been named as one of Victoria’s top 10 locations for heroin-involved overdose deaths in Victoria.
A Coroners Court report into overdose deaths in Victoria revealed Maribyrnong recorded 12 drug overdose deaths in 2020, six of which involved heroin.
The municipality was listed ninth – after Yarra, Brimbank, Melbourne, Port Phillip, Greater Dandenong, Greater Geelong, Darebin and Moreland – as one of Victoria’s 12 most frequent locations for heroin-involved overdose death from 2016-2020. Frankston, Monash and Knox were also in the top 12.
As reported by Star Weekly in May, key Victorian crossbench MP, Reason Party leader Fiona Patten called for a supervised injecting room in Footscray.
Maribyrnong mayor Michael Clarke had responded that there was no data, such as drug overdoses, to support an injecting room in Footscray.
Maribyrnong had five fatal heroin overdoses in 2016, nine in 2017, seven in 2018 and five in 2019, the report revealed.
Not-for-profit community health organisation Cohealth said more must be done to support people who use drugs.
“A range of alcohol and drug services need to be locally available to support the health and wellbeing of those who use drugs, prevent overdoses, and help connect people with pathways out of addiction,” a spokesperson said.
“Services should be tailored to the needs of each community, and evidence-based.
“Decisions about the location of injecting services are made by government.”
The report stated the list of Victoria’s top 12 locations for heroin-involved overdose deaths was prepared “to inform the discussion about heroin-related harms in Victoria, primarily driven by the implementation of Victoria’s first Medically Supervised Injecting Room (MSIR) in North Richmond and the possible opening of a second MSIR in the Melbourne Central Business District”.
