Heroin overdoses surge in Melbourne as health services struggle to cope

Stronger heroin on the streets of Melbourne is resulting in a spike in overdoses in the CBD, with community health organisations saying they are buckling under the increased strain.

Data from Youth Projects, which runs several drug safety services, shows every month an extra 1,000 people are accessing their needle syringe program, with 12,000 clean syringe kits now handed out each month.

The chief executive of Youth Projects, Ben Vasiliou, said they anticipate the number of clients needing services will surpass pre-pandemic levels by June as heroin use increases.

In the past 11 months, 9,000 people have accessed the services, compared with before the pandemic, when 11,000 people used the service each year.

Cohealth, a community health organisation and provider of choice for the second safe-injecting room, says the increase in potency of heroin on the streets and a lower tolerance among the community has resulted in a spike in overdoses.

During the pandemic lockdown, the supply of heroin dwindled, and people switched to other drugs to get by, he said. But now borders are back open, heroin has flooded the market and people are administering the same amount they would pre-covid, leading to a spike in overdoses.

Dan Lubman, the clinical director of Turning Point, the national centre of addiction research, said the facility in Richmond has saved 63 lives and managed more than 6,000 overdoses and no fatalities.