Police are warning of a dangerous increase in the strength of drugs being taken in Canberra after two people died from overdoses within 24 hours.
While toxicology reports have yet to determine the drugs responsible for the deaths, ACT Policing has urged users to test drugs for purity, warning of adulteration with "dangerous" substances.
"When we start seeing overdoses, and particularly, fatal overdoses ... that's when we have those concerns that there's something wrong," Detective Acting Superintendent David Craft said.
Both the deaths, a woman and a man, were reported in the city and inner north.
The number of people dying from unintentional overdoses in the ACT has trended upwards, new data from the Pennington Institute shows.
Data revealed 34 deaths of this nature in 2022, 37 deaths in 2021, and 30 deaths in 2020.
"For the third year in a row, there were over 30 unintentional drug-induced deaths recorded in the ACT," a statement from the institute said.
The latest location data collected over a five-year period revealed the Canberra area (comprising North Canberra, South Canberra, Canberra East) recorded the highest number of deaths of this nature.
There were 49 deaths reported between 2018 and 2022.
This was followed by areas in Belconnen (32), Tuggeranong (32), Gungahlin (20), Woden Valley (11) and Weston Creek (5).
'Dangerous' adulterations
In the two years CanTEST has been operating, the pill-testing service had detected and issued public alerts about three different types of nitazenes.
They were extremely strong opioids. Some types of nitazenes were reportedly "100 times stronger" than heroin.
"They're so potent, it would only need to be a small amount of adulteration that could cause serious harm, including death," program coordinator Steph Tzanetis said.
She said traces of this substance had been found in a variety of unregulated drugs like heroin and cocaine.
The ACT was the first Australian jurisdiction to pass drug decriminalisation laws in 2023, allowing people to possess drugs including cocaine, ice and heroin.
Supt Craft said an increase in overdoses was not directly linked to decriminalisation because Canberra always had a drug-taking community.
"I don't think we can draw a correlation," he said.
"It's purely the substances that are out there are dangerous.
"While the drugs being used and the cause of these overdoses is under investigation, we are encouraging all drug users to be as safe as possible."
People should be aware of an "antidote" - naloxone - that is free and available in almost all pharmacies, Ms Tzanetis added.
he medicine is used to safely reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.
Naloxone added to police kit
ACT Policing encouraged community members to use the free CanTEST service to test the substances they were taking.
Supt Craft also suggested people could carry naloxone doses with them to help someone in case of an opioid overdose.
"If you're a close associate or a family member of someone that is a drug user ... the more things that you can do to arm yourself to better protect people within your inner circle," he said.
"If you encounter someone who may be experiencing an overdose, don't hesitate, call an ambulance on triple-0 immediately."
He said ACT Policing would approve the addition of naloxone doses to their first aid response in the next two weeks.
"It's not directly as a result of what we're seeing now, but I think it's something that ACT Policing has been extremely proactive with, is getting ahead of the curve," he said.
Police said front-line officers would first be trained in administering naloxone before it became part of their official response.
Where to get naloxone
- Canberra Alliance for Harm Minimisation and Advocacy, Belconnen
- Primary Needle and Syringe Program sites, Canberra City and Woden
- CanTEST Health and Drug Checking Service, Civic
- Directions Health Services, Woden
- Teen Clinic Canberra, Conder (Teens and families only)
- Many pharmacies
