September 2021
Australia’s Annual Overdose Report 2021, released by the Penington Institute, found that more Australians have died from drug overdose every year since 2014 than in road accidents. More than half (1644) of the 2227 drug-induced deaths recorded nationally in 2019 were unintentional. In 2019 opioids were the drug responsible for most of the unintentional deaths (882), followed by benzodiazepines (582), and stimulants (470). Not surprisingly, many of the deaths were linked to the use of multiple drugs in combination.
