Australia has recorded its deadliest year on record for drug overdoses, with someone dying of an overdose on average every three and a half hours during 2024. That works out to about seven deaths a day, and roughly 2,600 deaths over the 12-month period, a toll that was actually double the national road toll for that same year.
The figures were compiled by the Pennington Institute, a drug policy research group, which analysed the latest available data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The numbers form part of a preview of a fuller overdose report that the institute says it will release later in the year, with more detail still to come.
According to the institute, around 80 percent of the overdose deaths were unintentional rather than deliberate. People aged between 50 and 59 recorded the highest number of unintentional overdose deaths for the period, a finding that stood out in the early analysis of the 2024 data.
The report also pointed to a sharp rise in deaths linked to stimulants. Deaths involving stimulants, and in particular ice, increased by more than 25 percent compared with the previous year, a jump that helped drive the overall total to its record level.
Pennington Institute chief executive John Ryan said many of these deaths were preventable, and he called on state and federal governments to invest more in harm minimisation, treatment services and drug education. He argued that the issue is being treated mainly as a law enforcement problem when it is really a health and social one.
Ryan said most of the effort and money goes into law enforcement, while less than 2 percent is directed towards safety approaches or harm reduction. He questioned the level of political commitment to the problem, saying that if the figure were double the road toll, politicians would be taking it far more seriously than they are now.
A federal health department spokesperson responded that the government does invest heavily in a broad range of programs aimed at minimising the harms associated with drug and alcohol use. Ryan noted that some countries, including many in Europe, are doing much better than Australia, while others such as the United States and Canada are faring worse, as drug problems spread around the world.