Fact Sheet
• Overdoses were responsible for 26,400 deaths in the US in 2007. Opioid painkillers have
caused more deaths in the US since 2003 than heroin and cocaine combined, said the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
• The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) world overview for 2011 estimated
between 25,000 and 27,000 drug related deaths in Europe. The Russian Federation, Ukraine,
the United Kingdom, Spain and Germany accounted for 80% of the total.
• A drug overdose survey conducted in 12 countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia by
The Eurasian Harm Reduction Network (EHRN) decided official data was unreliable. The Black
Sea state of Georgia, for example, officially recorded 15 overdose-related deaths in 2010.
However one health clinic in the capital Tiblisi reported 5 or 6 overdoses a day.
• Eastern Europe and Central Asia has an estimated 3,724,000 people who inject drugs. At
least two-thirds of users reported having overdosed, with 4 out of 100 being fatal, the EHRN
survey found. In most countries in the region drug users are afraid to call an ambulance for an
overdose because police must launch a criminal investigation when a death occurs.
• Countries in South America, including the Caribbean and Central America, reported
relatively few drug-related deaths (between 2,200 and 6,300) with a mortality rate well below
the global average, the UNDOC said.
• The UNODC estimates that Africa has between 13,000 and 41,700 drug overdose deaths a
year, close to the global average per head of population.
• Drug-related deaths in Asia are extremely tentative because of poor regional coverage and
reporting of mortality data, the UNODC said. However the agency estimated that between
15,000 and 140,000 overdose deaths occur each year in Asia.
• UNODC says Oceania, which includes Australia and New Zealand, has a higher that average
drug mortality rate, mainly because of better reporting. The agency said about 2,800 drug
related deaths occurred in 2010
• At least one Australian dies every day as a result of opioid overdose, without counting
deaths due to overdoses on other drugs. In Victoria the Coroners Court recorded 338 drugrelated deaths in 2010. Prescription medicines alone were responsible for 40 percent, the
second largest group was prescription medicines mixed with illicit drugs (20.4 percent).
•Thousands of Australians are hospitalized each year for drug poisonings and many are
children. In 2005-06 there were 6,623 Australians admitted to hospital over non-fatal drug
overdoses and 20 percent of these were children aged 0-4years old.
• Powerful painkillers are being prescribed to Australians at increasing rates. In the decade
and a half until 2007 prescriptions for opioid painkillers rose threefold to 7 million a year.
Over the same period the number of strong painkillers available has risen from 11 in 1992 to
70 in 2007.
• In Ireland prescription pills offences far outstrip those for heroin, cocaine and cannabis. Of
1,500 arrests for drug-dealing in Dublin city centre between September and December 2011
just 60 were for selling drugs such as heroin and cocaine.
• Celebrities who have died of overdose include Michael Jackson, Heath Ledger, Jimi Hendrix
and Amy Winehouse.
• Recognised by international bodies such as Harm Reduction International and the Eurasian
Harm Reduction Network (EHRN) Overdose Awareness Day is being observed in many
countries around the world such as Nepal, Scotland, Canada, Lithuania, England, and Mexico.
For more information visit the website at www.overdoseday.com.