The real picture is starkly different. 

In 2016, there were 1808 drug induced deaths recorded around Australia, but some 65 per cent of those deaths were caused by either prescription painkillers or benzodiazepines, more commonly known as tranquilisers. 

In fact, data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed the person most likely to die from a drug overdose would be a man living in regional Australia misusing prescription drugs. 

And, as one 35-year-old Wagga mother of two recently realised when she was forced to front court after forging two prescriptions for painkillers, prescription drug addiction can affect anybody from any socio-economic background. 

The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, was discharged from the Royal Australian Air Force last year after 14 years of service, when a series of physical injuries and an ongoing battle with anxiety and depression left her unable to continue in the line of duty.  

Following her discharge, she was prescribed opioids by her doctor to help her manage the pain in her knees and shoulders.

After spending the better part of a year taking the strong painkillers as prescribed, the woman hit crisis point one Friday afternoon this February when she ran out of her medicine. 

“I was in a lot of pain and I didn’t have any Panadeine Forte left, and I couldn’t get a hold of my GP because the phones were down and they were busy,” she said.

“Then, with the mental health side of things, I didn’t know how I was going to cope with dealing with the weekend in pain – it was ‘what am I going to do? I’m going to be in pain’.”

In her anxious state and desperate for some relief, she slipped into a surgery room in the medical practice at which she worked and stole two scripts.

“I guess it was just my knee-jerk reaction – I walked in, I was desperate, and I was like ‘I can get this, I can get it now, and I can get relief until I can make an appointment to see my doctor again’,” she said. 

When she took the two stolen scripts to a pharmacist to have them filled, she was caught and quickly charged with attempting to obtain an illicit drug, forging a prescription, and obtaining property by deception. 

She said the shock of suddenly going from being known as a mum struggling with pain to being labelled a ‘criminal’ called to appear before a court made her hit rock bottom, triggering a serious mental breakdown. 

“I'm 35 years old, I've got a clean record, this is the first time in my life that I've ever offended – I don’t even have a speeding ticket or a parking fine,” she said.

“I had to go and spend a month in hospital in Canberra at a mental health facility – I guess with everything that had happened, it was just the tipping point for me to realise that I needed help, I needed to get myself clean, and I needed to get my mental health fixed.

“Since then, I've been alcohol-free, I've been opioid-free, and I’ve been clean and sober.”

While she accepts there were many factors at play in her decision to steal and then forge the scripts, including her declining mental health, this Wagga mother’s dependence on prescribed opioids was at the centre of her downfall.

Her story is shared with countless others as Australia’s battle with prescription medications continues to grow, resulting in the number of oxycodone medications dispensed between 2010 and 2015 increasing by more than 100 per cent. 

While she was able to use the incident that landed her in court as a springboard to getting help, she said she knew not everybody would be so lucky.

“I think being in court opened my eyes, as well – it was the first time I had ever stepped inside a courtroom, and there were so many people struggling that were worse off than me,” she said. 

“I still think about the people who don't have the access to the help that I did. I was lucky that I had access to a private health facility, but people in Wagga just have the public system, and it kind of chews them up and spits them out.”

For Wagga residents battling prescription drug dependency, accessing help can be very challenging. 

Dr Mary Ross runs the city’s only private opioid replacement clinic for people in the grips of addiction. 

She cares for some 70 patients through the clinic, which is based out of the Trail Street Medical Centre.

“Prescription drug dependency is a serious problem and, looking at the data from 2009 to 2015, 80 per cent of overdose deaths were due to benzodiazepines and opioids,” Dr Ross said. 

“It's a serious problem worldwide, and research shows the problem has become increasingly serious in Australia.” 

Dr Ross said much of the problem stemmed from how easy it has become to access these medications in recent years.

“It comes down to the availability of the medication in the first place, and evidence shows that people abuse drugs that are in front of them, so, by restricting availability, you will decrease the level of dependency,” she said. 

“The Australian Government rescheduled one benzodiazepine called Alprazolam in 2014 from a schedule four to a schedule eight medication, which made it more difficult to access and led to a 35 per cent reduction in scripts in the first 12 months.” 

Restricting the availability of these medications forms only one part of the solution; Dr Ross said the rehabilitation services on offer in Wagga do not reflect how serious a problem dependency has become.

“I do see a need to expand and establish other opioid replacement clinics, and having more private prescribers would benefit the community,” Dr Ross said.

“But there is also a stigma attached to looking after drug dependent patients in private practice, so our GPs would also need support and education around that.” 

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