DRUG safety and harm minimisation advocate, the Penington Institute, has released its 2024 Annual Review.
Its focus has been on driving progress in key areas, including advancing research and policy reform on cannabis, continuing to support frontline workforces, and taking action to reduce overdose deaths.
The group applauded government policy initiatives, including music festival pill testing trials in Victoria, Queensland, NSW and ACT.
The institute also recognised the Victorian Government's commitment to a trial of hydromorphone as a treatment for opioid dependence, along with several other overdose reduction measures.
"The health benefit from these decisions is plain to see - particularly given the increasingly complex and adulterated drug supply in Australia and around the world," said CEO John Ryan.
Australia is falling behind a growing global shift toward evidence-based cannabis regulation, the most commonly used drug after alcohol, the report notes, with other countries demonstrating how better management of cannabis "can reverse the harms to people and communities inflicted by outdated policies".
Another 2024 highlight was the continuation of its International Overdose Awareness Campaign.
The institute's drug and alcohol overdose report highlighted the increasing role of pharmaceutical drugs in fatal and non-fatal overdoses, with opioids, benzodiazapenes, stimulants and antidepressants the main culprits, while its statistics on unintentional fatal overdoses showed a rapid increase in the proportion of deaths involving benzodiazapenes over 20 years.
The Annual Review is HERE.
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