Rising numbers of Australians are dying from accidentally overdosing on prescription drugs morphine, codeine, oxycodone and fentanyl, the latest drug deaths data shows.
- Kate Aubusson
- The Sydney Morning Herald
Australia has so far been spared the magnitude of the opioid “epidemic” in the US and its emerging fentanyl crisis, but drug experts were closely monitoring the creeping death rates linked to the synthetic drug.
A total of 1045 people from 15 to 64 years old died from opioid overdoses in Australia in 2016, according to the report released on Monday by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC).
The rate of…