'I screamed': A mother's grief as drug overdose deaths hit record high

Seven Australians are dying each day from drug overdose in worst year on record, researchers say Tue 16 Jun 2026 at 12:01am In short: Australia recorded its deadliest year on record for drug overdoses, according to a new analysis, with an average of seven deaths per day. In a preview of the Penington Institute's annual overdose report, there were nearly 2,600 overdose fatalities in 2024. What's next? Drug researchers say the deaths are preventable and governments must invest more in harm reduction and treatment services. One winter night, Marg Quon wondered why her son had not come looking for his bedtime hot chocolate. "He would always make a cup … before he went to sleep and he would spill it all the way from the kitchen down to his bedroom," Ms Quon recalled. But when Kris Quon's mother checked on him that July night, the 28-year-old was not breathing. "There he was in his bedroom … he'd fallen off the bed," she said. "I screamed like a banshee. "It never crossed my mind that would be the night he wouldn't survive." Ms Quon's "adventurous" son, who loved skateboarding and photography, had accidentally overdosed after consuming alcohol, cannabis, heroin and benzodiazepines. It has been 18 years since Kris died and Ms Quon said it was frustrating that overdose deaths in Australia were now at their highest number ever, according to new data. "I'm disappointed that we've not made a great deal of progress in preventing overdose," she said. Seven people are dying a day: Penington Institute Australia recorded its deadliest overdose year on record, according to the Penington Institute's new analysis of 2024 data. The non-profit drug policy research group said an early preview of its annual overdose report, due later this year, revealed 2,596 people had died in 2024. "“It's one [person] every 3.5 hours — seven people a day are dying from an overdose," Penington Institute's chief executive John Ryan said. "The numbers are extraordinarily high, especially for a cause of death that is fundamentally preventable." The preliminary data, which will be subject to updates over the coming months, showed 80 per cent of the deaths — 2,091 — were unintentional drug-induced fatalities. "It's incredibly frustrating because the numbers are stark," Mr Ryan said The report analysed the most recent Australian Bureau of Statistics data on drug-induced deaths, which is from 2024. Illicit drug policy researcher Alison Ritter, from the University of New South Wales, said the data was of "grave concern". "The fact that the number of deaths is higher than our annual road toll should make governments stand up and take notice," Scientia Professor Ritter said. 'Every single death is preventable' Deaths related to cocaine, stimulants (such as methamphetamine), and opioids (such as heroin), all increased in 2024. Deaths involving stimulants increased significantly, up 25.1 per cent in 12 months. Mr Ryan said the biggest driver was amphetamines, particularly ice. "I do think it reflects how much methamphetamine particularly has become part of the fabric of regional and rural and metropolitan Australia," he said. "It's amazingly prevalent and amazingly harmful as a drug and amazing that we don't, as a community, face up to that challenge." Scientia Professor Ritter said while it was early data, it "provides an important overview of an issue that doesn't get talked about enough". "Every single one of these deaths is preventable,"she said. For the first time ever, people in the 50-59 age group recorded the highest number of unintentional overdose deaths, up from 448 fatalities in 2023 to 533 in 2024. "The majority of them are men, the majority of them are middle-aged," Scientia Professor Ritter said. "There is a lot of work to be done in this area." Why are overdose deaths increasing? Mr Ryan argued there was an overdose "knowledge gap" in the community. "The overdose data is a real barometer of how we're managing drug use issues and, unfortunately, I think it's a big fail." He said only a small amount of funding went to harm reduction including education, the opioid overdose withdrawal drug naloxone, drug testing and safe injecting facilities. "We don't have an educated community about drugs and we don't have drug smarts in the community," he said. "Even people who use drugs often don't understand much about the drugs that they're consuming … we haven't seen political leadership in this area." Federal health minister Mark Butler referred the ABC to the health department for a response. A spokesperson for the department said the federal government provides,"substantial investment into a broad range of programs and activities aimed at minimising the harms associated with alcohol and other drug use in Australia". "The government's approach is guided by the National Drug Strategy 2017-2026 which outlines a national commitment to harm minimisation through a balanced adoption of evidence-based demand, supply, and harm reduction strategies," the spokesperson said. The department said from 2026 to 2027, $727 million would be invested over three years, followed by $244.2 million annually from 2029 to 2030 onwards. It said some harm reduction measures were matters for state and territory governments. Scientia Professor Ritter said a much bigger share of funding was spent on law enforcement, rather than harm reduction. "Based on some research that we published a couple of years ago, the investment in harm reduction is only 2 per cent of the total investment by governments across Australia in responding to illicit drugs. That's simply not enough," she said. "The vast majority… 64 per cent is spent on law enforcement. "We've got good evidence from research that we've done that it would be far better to refer people who use drugs into harm reduction and treatment services than put them through the criminal justice system." Drug users struggle to access treatment Marg Quon has spent years reflecting on the struggles her son Kris faced and has written a book about him. When her son was just five, his father died in a workplace accident, Ms Quon said. "We presented well to the outside world, so everybody thought we were just fine, but we weren't," she said. By age 14, Kris was smoking cannabis. When he was 18 years old, Kris injected amphetamine for the first time. Ms Quon said Kris, who had served a suspended sentence for drug possession and dealing, wanted to get help but found it was not easy to access. Scientia Professor Ritter said that was a common experience. "What we've found is that only half the number of people who are seeking treatment are able to receive it," she said. "So we have this massive unmet demand for alcohol and other drug treatment in Australia. We would need to double our treatment resources to meet that demand. "There's no other health-related condition where society says we're only going to treat half the number of people who might require it. That's a huge gap in our system." Mr Ryan accused governments of only paying "lip service" to the issue. "They don't do the real hard yards. I think that really fails the Australian community,"he said. "I have to talk to people who've lost someone to overdose knowing that we as a community have the tools available… yet our community response, reflected by our government, is to look the other way."