‘Grave fears’: Overdose deaths reach 10-year high in Victoria

The number of Victorians dying of a drug overdose has soared to a 10-year high, in what support services have described as a “watershed moment” for the state’s drug policy.

A new report by the Coroners Court of Victoria, released on Tuesday, examines a decade of overdose data and shows 584 Victorians died from an overdose last year, an increase of 37 deaths compared to 2023.

Heroin was the drug involved in the largest number of deaths, followed by the anxiety-reducing drug diazepam (also known as Valium), methamphetamine, alcohol and the anti-epilepsy drug pregabalin.

According to the data, methamphetamine-related deaths jumped by more than 30 per cent between 2023 and 2024, and fatal overdoses connected to the highly addictive drug have more than tripled since 2015.

Most fatal overdoses involved more than one substance, and about three-quarters occurred in Melbourne’s metropolitan area. Greater Geelong and the Hume City Council, in Melbourne’s outer north, were among the local government areas that experienced a significant spike in overdoses in 2024, with 35 and 22 deaths respectively.

The Victorian Alcohol and Drug Association, which represents more than 80 alcohol and drug services, said the increase in fatalities involving illicit drugs highlighted the ongoing failure of the “war on drugs” approach.

Chief executive Chris Christoforou said the 2024 data should mark a turning point in the strategy for tackling illicit drug use.

“I hold grave fears that this level of fatality is fast becoming normal,” he said.

Christoforou said alcohol and other drug treatment services were unable to cope with the requests for help, resulting in excessive waiting times that could span months, effectively making treatment unattainable.

“We are worried that people are giving up,” he said.

“This data is again marked by an increase in heroin-related fatal overdoses. The continuing debate on the value of medically supervised injecting, led by misinformed and stigmatising narratives, has sadly stymied further support. What we see in today’s data is the real impact of these debates.”

Christoforou said increasing medically supervised injecting spaces in high-risk areas was a matter of urgency.

While the number of heroin-related deaths has fluctuated substantially year-to-year over the past decade (except for the Yarra local government area, where they have been stubbornly high), they accounted for more than 40 per cent of fatal overdoses in 2024. The vast majority, about 80 per cent, took place in metropolitan Melbourne.

Almost half of the fatal heroin overdoses in the City of Yarra area – which includes the inner-city suburbs of Abbotsford, Collingwood, Fitzroy, Fitzroy North and Richmond, among others – occurred in parks, alleys, toilet blocks and other public spaces.

Dr Erin Lalor, the chief executive of the Alcohol and Drug Foundation, said Victoria lacked a long-term alcohol and drug strategy focused on harm prevention with a dedicated budget.

“The state government consulted with the alcohol and other drug sector last year around a dedicated alcohol and drug strategy, but we are still waiting for its release,” she said.

Lalor said health services like pill testing also needed to go hand in hand with prevention programs and education campaigns, particularly for those at risk of an overdose.

Victorian State Coroner John Cain said no community in the state escaped the impact of overdose deaths. He said ensuring that Victorians could access support, treatment and education was vital.

“We have seen some genuine progress in harm reduction initiatives recently, including the commencement of Victoria’s drug checking trial,” he said.

“However, the concerning rise in overdose deaths and especially those involving illegal drugs is a stark reminder that we need to keep building on our harm reduction efforts.”

A decade ago, illegal drugs contributed to just under half of Victorian overdose deaths. In 2024, they accounted for 65.6 per cent of deaths, up from 58.9 per cent in 2023 and 54.9 per cent in 2022.

While deaths linked to pharmaceutical drugs have declined by nearly 10 per cent since 2015, the substances continue to contribute to a significant proportion of fatalities. In 2024, there were 405 fatal overdoses where pharmaceutical drugs were detected.

Benzodiazepines were the most common type of drug detected, followed by prescription opioids, antidepressants, antipsychotics and anticonvulsants. Both benzodiazepines and pharmaceutical opioids have experienced a drop, most likely as a result of changes to prescribing practices and the roll-out of the SafeScript system, which allows doctors, nurses, and pharmacists to access a patient’s prescription history for high-risk medication.

The data shows men are, on average, twice as likely as women to die from an overdose, with people between the ages of 35 and 54 most at risk. The rate of overdose deaths among men reached its highest level in a decade in 2024, after jumping 16 per cent from the previous year.

However, the figures show overdoses among underage people are very rare, with only two people under 18 dying of an overdose in 2024.

Most of the deaths, about 75 per cent, were deemed accidental or unintentional.

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