Twenty-six people have died of unintentional drug overdoses in Wagga in just five years, a hefty 24 per cent increase, according to a new report.
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The figures have been revealed in Australia's Annual Overdose Report from the Penington Institute.
"That whole idea that overdose is a city problem is wrong. It's a rural, regional and country problem," Penington Institute's chief executive officer John Ryan said.
"The old idea that it's illegal drugs like heroin or something is wrong, too. Many of the overdoses are pharmaceutical drugs.
"Deaths in regional NSW involving benzodiazepines, pharmaceutical opioids, and stimulants are almost double those of Sydney in recent years.
"In the five years between 2013 and 2017, there were 26 unintentional overdose deaths in Wagga. Not only is this a 24 per cent increase on the five years between 2003 and 2007 - it's 26 too many.
"You're almost twice as likely to die of an unintentional drug overdose in regional NSW today than a decade ago."
Mr Ryan said 10 years ago, people were more likely to die of an unintentional overdose in Sydney than regional NSW.
He said the report also found that not only are residents of regional NSW dying from unintentional overdoses at rates 33 per cent higher than in Sydney, the rate of unintentional overdose deaths in regional NSW has increased by 42 per cent in just five years.
"Our report doesn't investigate the reasons. We're looking much more at the numbers, but I think there's a general problem which is that some people are entering into overdose risk via pharmaceutical drugs and they're entering into pharmaceutical drugs via workplace accidents, road accidents or sporting accidents," he said.
"But I think on a broader level, we have to admit there is a lack of healthcare in regional and rural areas, compared to the cities and also the distances in terms of emergency response are greater in country areas, typically, so there's a lot of contributors to the increasing overdose toll."
Member for Wagga Joe McGirr, a former emergency doctor, believes there may not always have been awareness of the problem of prescription opioid addiction.
"There was a focus on illegal drugs - people think of heroin when they think of drug overdoses - but people were unaware there was a range of prescription medications that were associated with overdoses and other ill-effects," he said.
"We've had the initiative where codeine has come off the over-the-counter list in recent times and that's because the evidence for its effectiveness is pretty limited, whereas it's got the potential for an overdose."
