IN the five years between 2009 and 2013, 145 residents of Newcastle and the Hunter died of accidental overdoses. In the next five years, the period covering 2014 to 2018, that toll rose by a staggering 56 per cent, to 226.
That is just one of the findings of Penington Institute's Annual Overdose Report 2020, the nation's leading source of knowledge about drug-related deaths.
The data couldn't be clearer: Newcastle and the Hunter is in the grips of its very own overdose crisis, driven by legal and illicit drugs in near-equal proportion.
The same is true for the entire state.
The 226 Newcastle and Hunter residents who died of accidental overdoses across these five years were part of the 500+ NSW residents who died over the same time period.
Contrary to other states, where illicit drugs like heroin and ice are most often involved in overdose deaths, the major contributors to overdose deaths in NSW are legal drugs - pharmaceutical opioids and benzodiazepines.
Benzos, commonly used to treat anxiety and insomnia, are the drug type most often detected in unintentional overdose deaths in NSW, with 198 deaths involving benzos in 2018 alone.
They are also the drug type most often detected in overdoses in rural and regional NSW, which continued a persistent trend of higher rates of drug-related deaths than Sydney.
Regional NSW has experienced higher rates of accidental overdose deaths than the Sydney area in every year since 2010 - and this gap is getting larger with time.
It's intolerable that hundreds of residents of our largest state, as well as one of our most significant regional areas, continue dying of eminently preventable causes.
Overdose is a complex problem, driven by myriad factors.
But beyond this complexity lies the disarmingly simple fact that the Berejiklian government can and should be doing much more to respond to this hidden health crisis.
To begin, the government must commit to better understanding and addressing the factors that cause the persistent gap in rates of drug-related death in regional NSW.
The major contributors to overdose deaths in NSW are legal drugs - pharmaceutical opioids and benzodiazepines.
The second is to immediately make the current Commonwealth pilot of Take Home Naloxone permanent.
Naloxone is a proven intervention that saves lives from opioid overdoses, when potential overdose witnesses have it and know when and how to use it.
Beyond that, the NSW government must recognise that it is dealing with a health crisis and that it cannot arrest its way to a reduced overdose toll.
Relying on law enforcement when the overdose toll is clearly a health problem is doomed to fail.
Medication-assisted treatments such as methadone and long-acting buprenorphine must be made more available and a concerted effort must be made to increase psychosocial support for people in need.
But, above all, more must be done to educate the public about overdose risks.
Every edition of the Annual Overdose Report is an opportunity to contribute to a public conversation that we do not have often enough.
And in the absence of a sustained debate, misinformation and stereotypes proliferate.
This issue must be brought out of the shadows.
It cannot be treated as simply a sad but ultimately tolerable cost of life.
The families who have lost loved ones deserve better than having to grieve behind a veil of silence.
I am not so naive to believe that this issue sits at the top of any state government's policy agenda right now.
But I am not the only person to have noticed the discrepancy between the NSW government's deference to public health advice when it comes to COVID-19 versus their resistance when it comes to best available evidence drug policies that could save lives.
Penington Institute is releasing Australia's Annual Overdose Report 2020 on the 20th International Overdose Awareness Day.
This campaign, which began in Melbourne in 2001, has grown into the world's largest annual campaign to end overdose, remember those who have died without stigma and acknowledge the grief of the family and friends left behind.
Newcastle Town Hall will be lit purple to mark the campaign.
If you happen to drive past, spare a moment to consider the costs of our perseverance with an approach to drugs that hasn't worked - and the hundreds of local families grieving their loved ones and struggling with the impenetrable veil of silence that surrounds this hidden health crisis.
John Ryan is the CEO of the Penington Institute
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