Spike in deaths from fentanyl overdoses - Sydney Morning Herald - Sydney Morning Herald

Since 2010 fentanyl has been a factor in at least 50 deaths. Photo: Craig Abraham

THE nation's coroners have revealed drug users are tampering with over-the-counter fentanyl patches, leading to a spike in fatal overdoses from the powerful painkiller.

New data shows users have discovered ways to extract the drug from the patch and inject it, while others are slathering on multiple patches - nicknamed ''stickers'' by drug users.

In one death as many as 17 ''stickers'' were applied at once, according to new records released by the National Coronial Information System.

Since 2010 fentanyl medication abuse has been a factor in at least 50 deaths, with a peak of 26 deaths in 2011. That figure is likely to rise, with 32 deaths linked to the drug still under investigation by the coroner.

The NCIS report revealed almost 70 per cent of those who fatally overdosed on the prescription medication since 2000 used the patch form of the drug. In another nine cases vials or syringes of the drug were injected, including by a medical professional who was found dead in a toilet cubicle after overdosing on a fusion of remifentanil, midazolam and fentanyl obtained through their workplace.

It was this case that prompted the coroner to recommend ''hospitals and other similar institutions adopt protocols that will ensure the proper disposal of unused drugs, used syringes and like paraphernalia''.

A former adviser to the NSW government, Professor Bob Batey, said he raised the issue of fentanyl misuse with the NSW health department three years ago, but its response, to alert methadone prescribers, ''failed to acknowledge the significance of the problem''.

Professor Batey, a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Sydney, first became aware opiate drug users were injecting the drug three years ago when he was working in Albury-Wodonga as a drug and alcohol specialist. During his visits to the New South Wales and Victorian border he heard about a case where someone had applied 15 patches at once, however even he was surprised just how many lives have been lost to the drug.

As previously reported in The Age, fentanyl prescriptions have soared by more than 50 times in a decade.

Professor Batey said the new statistics from the coroner's courts were ''shocking'' and further evidence that fentanyl, a drug 100 times stronger than morphine, was being over-prescribed.

''The general public believe they're entitled to opiates because they have drug companies and people saying how wonderful it is,'' Professor Batey said.

''There's not 500 per cent more pain in the community than there was five-years ago, but there is much more prescribing.''

Significant numbers of fatal overdoses started to emerge in earnest in Australia in 2010 when 22 deaths linked to fentanyl were recorded, up from nine in 2009 and 10 in 2008.

Nearly three-quarters of the confirmed cases involve men and all but seven died at home from what were largely unintentional overdoses. Almost 90 per cent of those deaths were aged between 20 or 49.

A spokesman from the Victorian drug agency Anex, Patrick Griffiths, said this data supported claims older pensioners legitimately prescribed the medication were selling it to younger users or dealers.