Fatal drug overdoses reach 10-year high in Victoria, with people aged between 35 and 54 most at risk

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More Victorians died of drug overdoses in 2024 compared to any other year in the past decade, a new report shows.
According to latest data from the Coroners Court of Victoria, the state recorded 584 fatal overdoses last year, up from 547 the year prior, with illegal drugs remaining the biggest contributor.
While Victoria's annual per capita fatal overdose rate remained more or less stable at around 8.1 deaths per 100,000 people between 2015 and 2024, the report noted a significant increase in the involvement of illicit drugs over the same period.
Classed under that category are substances such as heroin, methamphetamine, MDMA, cocaine and GHB.
Those drugs peaked in use last year in both metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria, contributing to 65 per cent of the total overdose deaths across the state.
That represents a 16 per cent increase from 2015, when illegal drugs contributed to 49 per cent of the state's total overdose deaths.
"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," Victorian state coroner John Cain said.
Tuesday's data breaks down Victorian overdose deaths by three main categories — illegal, pharmaceutical, and alcohol.
The report found that pharmaceutical drug use — although over-represented in the overall overdose deaths last year at 69 per cent — has gradually declined over the decade.
Meanwhile, the contribution of alcohol in 2024 was consistent with previous years at a rate of 24 per cent.
In the past decade, 5,268 people have died from drug overdoses in Victoria and most of those deaths were from combined drug toxicity.
Last year, the five top contributing drugs to fatal overdoses were heroin (248), diazepam (219), methamphetamine (215), alcohol (141) and pregabalin (92).
Heroin and methamphetamine-related deaths were the highest in the metropolitan local government areas of Yarra and Melbourne city respectively.
In regional Victoria, where about a quarter of total fatal overdoses occurred, Greater Geelong recorded a substantially higher number of deaths in 2024 than in previous years at 35, all but one of which were a result of heroin and meth use.
Head of policy and practice at the Victorian Alcohol and Drug Association (VAADA), Scott Drummond, said the figures called for increased treatment resources and prevention initiatives in the illicit drug space.
"These deaths are the result of a continuing low level of action or almost inaction in response to drug use in the community," he said.
"One of the things that was really problematic was the intense debate around the overdose prevention facility, otherwise known as the safe injecting room.
However, 95 people aged 55 to 64 also died from an overdose in 2024, compared to 87 the year prior, with numbers fluctuating across the decade.
Victoria first introduced a Medically Supervised Injecting Service (MSIR) trial in North Richmond in 2018.
But last year the Allan government turned down recommendations for a second such facility to be set up in the Melbourne CBD. despite data at the time pointing to the City of Melbourne as the deadliest council area for drug deaths.
It instead committed to a $95 million Statewide Action Plan. That included a new $36.4 community health service, trial of hydromorphone, more naloxone vending machines, expansion of pharmacotherapy — which involves specialist drugs like methadone and counselling — and the appointment of a chief addiction advisor in the Victorian Department of Health.
Naloxone is a medicine that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose and comes in the form of a nasal spray, as well as an injection.
Under the Take Home Naloxone program launched in 2022, the drug was federally subsidised. But determining which pharmacies or community services can distribute it and how much they are supplied with is up to each state and territory.
As part of its health plan the Victorian government also started a mobile pill testing service at music festivals last year. This month it is due to open a fixed site service in Fitzroy.
Mr Drummond said those initiatives were welcome but also required a well-funded implementation strategy.
"The drug checking service is a great start, but we need to continue to introduce more initiatives, such as increasing the availability of Naloxone, a drug which is easy to administer and reverses opioid overdoses," he said.
"We need more overdose prevention facilities, such as the supervised injecting rooms, where the harms are occurring — that's place-based intervention.
"We need more resourcing for peer-support services, where folks of lived and living experience of drug and alcohol use can support those that are in the midst of drug and alcohol use. Their support and wisdom is really helpful and really effective.
"We need more specialist services responding to misuse of benzodiazepines (a pharmaceutical depressant drug)."
Similar measures have also been called for nationally.
A five-point prevention strategy recommended last year by The Penington Institute. It has compiled Australia's annual overdose report for 10 years, including drug education, increasing Naloxone access, medication-assisted treatment, drug checking, and supervised consumption.
That was based off data showing 2,356 drug-induced deaths across Australia in 2022, 80 per cent of which were unintentional. Victoria's fatal overdose rate was the second-highest in the country after Western Australia.