Opioid overdoses a growing killer Australians are abusing prescription drugs at astounding rates, and overdose deaths are on the rise. In the US, more people a year died from prescribed opioid overdoses than from heroin - a trend being repeated in Australia, according to the former director of the alcohol and drug service at Sydney's St Vincent Hospital, Alex Wodak. "It is clear that when heroin became less available at the end of 2000, there was a much greater use of prescription opioids by injection," he said. In Australia, opioid overdose deaths are increasing, and a big part is due to prescription opioids. A report released by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre last year found 500 Australians aged between 15 and 54 had died due to accidental opioid overdoses in 2008 Nationally, there were 705 opioid deaths in 2010 compared with 360 in 2007, Dr Wodak said. The drugs are being increasingly prescribed. Results from this year's Global Drug Survey found that of more than 6600 respondents to an internet survey, about half had been prescribed anti-anxiety or anti-pain drugs in the past year. The survey, founded by British consultant addictions psychiatrist Adam Winstock in partnership with Fairfax Media, found that of 600 people who reported using anti-pain opioids, more than 30 per cent were using the drugs for relaxation, a quarter to get high and more than 10 per cent to relieve distress. It suggests abuse ranged widely, including illicit drug users, those in chronic pain and those sharing drugs. Queensland psychologist Cameron Brown, who works with The Cabin, a drug rehabilitation clinic in Thailand, and said a third of the patients came from Australia. The clinic was cheaper than those at home, he said, waiting lists were shorter and people felt they could keep their anonymity. Up to 15 per cent were there for addiction to prescription drugs, Dr Brown said, while up to 40 per cent were mixing prescription medications with other drugs. The No. 1 reason they start using prescription drugs is some sort of relief from pain or anxiety," he said. Some people will continue taking them because they get some kind of high, to dull emotional pain, or because they are addicted. Oxycodone and heavier painkillers are becoming more common. One such addict was 23-year-old Charlotte*, who has been clean for 14 months after abusing prescription drugs for eight years. They were easy to get, she said, from friends or a small circle of doctors who asked few questions. She took large quantities of anti-anxiety drugs including Xanax - up to 12 a day - and Valium. "I'd go back to the doctors every week," she said. She believes prescription drugs caused more harm than illicit drugs, which she also used. "There are chunks of time I just can't remember from when I was taking prescription drugs," she said. The director of the National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction at Adelaide's Flinders University, Anne Roche, said there was no firm data on what opioids were initially prescribed for or how people used them.. "This is a very important issue we're only just coming to terms with," she said. Professor Roche recommended more pain management centres, a national framework to manage drug misuse and better education of prescribers and their patients. Name changed to protect identity.