Early this week another drug alert was issued, this time by the Victorian government, warning that a . or signup to continue reading Then police announced that this was the cause of the four deaths linked to . The nature and increasing frequency of these alerts and deaths involving highly potent synthetic drugs in the illicit drug supply, in a country where 47 per cent of people aged 14 and above report use of an illicit drug in their lifetime, is truly frightening.
Victorians should be aware that synthetic opioids have been detected with increasing frequency in Australia since 2021. Internationally, synthetic opioids like nitazenes have most commonly been sold as heroin and falsified prescription pain medicines. In Australia they have also been detected in a wide range of other drugs including MDMA, ketamine, and this week the Victorian health department issued an urgent public alert about locally sold cocaine which has been mixed with protonitazene, .
Australians are the one of the in the world. In 2023, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission conservatively estimated that Australians consume more than four tonnes yearly, and Australian Institute of Health and Welfare statistics indicate that more than a million Australians tried the drug in the past year. Those in public health and addiction services across Australia are preparing for a large increase in nitazene overdoses - having already seen what is happening with the rise of synthetic opioid deaths in the US an.
