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Heroin‐related deaths in regional New South Wales, 1992–96
Author(s) -
DARKE SHANE,
ROSS JOANNE
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
drug and alcohol review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.018
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1465-3362
pISSN - 0959-5236
DOI - 10.1080/09595230096129
Subject(s) - heroin , metropolitan area , demography , medicine , morphine , blood alcohol , geography , environmental health , poison control , injury prevention , drug , archaeology , psychiatry , sociology
The coronial files of all 188 heroin‐related fatalities that occurred in regional New South Wales between 1992 and 1996 were inspected. There was a significant increase in fatalities, rising from 23 deaths in 1992 to 53 during 1996. The regions in which the most deaths occurred were Wollongong/Illawarra (43 deaths), Newcastle/Hunter (35) and the far north coast (25). The mean age of cases was 31.5 years and 83% were male, and there were no significant trends in demographic characteristics of cases over the study period. The median blood morphine concentration of cases was 0.39 mg/l (range 0.05–4.5 mg/l). Alcohol was detected in 50% of cases and benzodiazepines in 29%. There were large regional variations in toxicology results, with median blood morphine concentrations ranging from 0.25mg/l among south coast cases to 0.56mg/l in mid‐western New South Wales. Compared to Sydney metropolitan cases, regional cases had a higher median blood morphine concentration, were less likely to have cocaine detected, were more likely to have died in a home environment and to have been born in Australia.