'Never crossed my mind he wouldn't survive': Seven die daily from drug overdose
www.abc.net.au
Australia recorded its deadliest year on record for drug overdoses, according to a new analysis, with an average of seven deaths per day.

Australia recorded its deadliest year on record for drug overdoses, according to a new analysis, with an average of seven deaths per day.

In a preview of the Penington Institute’s annual overdose report, there were nearly 2,600 overdose fatalities in 2024.

For the first time ever, people in the 50-59 age group recorded the highest number of unintentional overdose deaths, up from 448 fatalities in 2023 to 533 in 2024.

“The majority of them are men, the majority of them are middle-aged,” Scientia Professor Ritter said.

  • SaneMartigan@aussie.zoneEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    Opioids, stimulants and benzos top the list. I doubt the deaths listed due to cannabis, brings the results into question for me.

    • ShrimpCurler@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
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      2 months ago

      Yeah, that 210 deaths due to cannabanoids piqued my interest. No one has ever been known to overdose using marijuana. But, synthetic cannabinoids can kill people. I found this from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare:

      AIHW analysis of the National Mortality Database showed that in 2024, cannabinoids were directly involved in 2.2% (or 43) of all drug-induced deaths, a decrease from 16.4% (325 deaths) in 2018 (Table NMD2). These numbers should be interpreted with caution due to a recent coding change surrounding the determination of the involvement of cannabis in drug-induced deaths. Prior to 2020, cannabis detected in the blood of a person who died from a multi-drug toxicity was assigned to T40.7 ‘Poisoning by cannabis (derivatives)’. Since 2020, T40.7 is assigned to drug-induced deaths only when cannabis is determined by the pathologist as contributing to the toxicity. Where cannabis is detected in the blood, but is not specified as contributing to the toxicity, it is coded as R78.3 ‘Finding of hallucinogen in blood’. For more information, see Technical notes.

      https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/alcohol/alcohol-tobacco-other-drugs-australia/contents/drug-types/cannabis

      That states only 43 deaths for the same year. I would also guess that many, possibly all of them are due to multiple drugs.

      • SaneMartigan@aussie.zoneEnglish
        0·
        2 months ago

        For real. If an article states that someone OD’d from heroin and cannabis, I know what killed them.