CANBERRA, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Australians addicted to prescription drugs are increasingly turning to more potent opioids, a study has found.
The report, released by the Penington Institute on Friday, found a significant increase in fatal accidental overdoses because of powerful drugs such as fentanyl, pethidine and tramadol.
From 2011 through 2015, 3,601 Australians died from opioid-related overdoses, twice as many as succumbed to overdoses from 2001 to 2005.
John Ryan, CEO of the Penington Institute, said that more lives would be lost unless the national approach to drug addiction was changed.
"We need better community education for people who are experimenting with drug use before they become addicted," Ryan told the Australian media.
Accidental deaths from morphine, codeine and oxycodone accounted for 1,556 opioid-related deaths over the five-year period while fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 100 times more potent than morphine, pethidine and tramadol were responsible for 796 deaths.
Penington Institute data found there had been 19-fold increase fentanyl-related deaths in the state of Queensland alone while Australia-wide the increase was eight-fold.
Chris Hayes, a pain specialist doctor, said that fentanyl was typically prescribed to treat pain in cancer patients. It is typically administered through an arm-patch which slowly releases the pain-relief.
"But in the liberal way of opioid policy in this country there has been seen a widening for chronic non-cancer pain as well," Hayes said.
Ryan said people were increasingly turning to the dark web to acquire fentanyl.
He said that government efforts to reduce supply would not solve the wider issue of drug addiction.
"The increasing deaths from overdose for basically all of this 21st century shows that we are failing to address drug problems in our community," he said.
