Christoforou said alcohol and other drug treatment services were unable to cope with the requests for help, resulting in excessive waiting times that could span months, effectively making treatment unattainable.
“We are worried that people are giving up,” he said.
A safe injecting demonstration in the medically supervised injecting room in Richmond.Credit: Penny Stephens
“This data is again marked by an increase in heroin-related fatal overdoses. The continuing debate on the value of medically supervised injecting, led by misinformed and stigmatising narratives, has sadly stymied further support. What we see in today’s data is the real impact of these debates.”
Christoforou said increasing medically supervised injecting spaces in high-risk areas was a matter of urgency.
While the number of heroin-related deaths has fluctuated substantially year-to-year over the past decade (except for the Yarra local government area, where they have been stubbornly high), they accounted for more than 40 per cent of fatal overdoses in 2024. The vast majority, about 80 per cent, took place in metropolitan Melbourne.
Almost half of the fatal heroin overdoses in the City of Yarra area – which includes the inner-city suburbs of Abbotsford, Collingwood, Fitzroy, Fitzroy North and Richmond, among others – occurred in parks, alleys, toilet blocks and other public spaces.
Dr Erin Lalor, the chief executive of the Alcohol and Drug Foundation, said Victoria lacked a long-term alcohol and drug strategy focused on harm prevention with a dedicated budget.
“The state government consulted with the alcohol and other drug sector last year around a dedicated alcohol and drug strategy, but we are still waiting for its release,” she said.
Lalor said health services like pill testing also needed to go hand in hand with prevention programs and education campaigns, particularly for those at risk of an overdose.
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Victorian State Coroner John Cain said no community in the state escaped the impact of overdose deaths. He said ensuring that Victorians could access support, treatment and education was vital.
“We have seen some genuine progress in harm reduction initiatives recently, including the commencement of Victoria’s drug checking trial,” he said.
“However, 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.”
A decade ago, illegal drugs contributed to just under half of Victorian overdose deaths. In 2024, they accounted for 65.6 per cent of deaths, up from 58.9 per cent in 2023 and 54.9 per cent in 2022.
While deaths linked to pharmaceutical drugs have declined by nearly 10 per cent since 2015, the substances continue to contribute to a significant proportion of fatalities. In 2024, there were 405 fatal overdoses where pharmaceutical drugs were detected.
Benzodiazepines were the most common type of drug detected, followed by prescription opioids, antidepressants, antipsychotics and anticonvulsants. Both benzodiazepines and pharmaceutical opioids have experienced a drop, most likely as a result of changes to prescribing practices and the roll-out of the SafeScript system, which allows doctors, nurses, and pharmacists to access a patient’s prescription history for high-risk medication.
The data shows men are, on average, twice as likely as women to die from an overdose, with people between the ages of 35 and 54 most at risk. The rate of overdose deaths among men reached its highest level in a decade in 2024, after jumping 16 per cent from the previous year.
However, the figures show overdoses among underage people are very rare, with only two people under 18 dying of an overdose in 2024.
Most of the deaths, about 75 per cent, were deemed accidental or unintentional.
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