While prescription drugs can be a cure, a new report has found more people are dying from overdosing on them, than on illicit drugs.
Drug research group, the Penington Institute, found a significant increase in the number of accidental deaths by overdose in the 10 years leading to 2014 in a new report.
Its CEO, John Ryan, says most deaths occur among men aged between 30 and 59, with pharmaceuticals such as oxycodone and Enzodiazepines responsible for the deaths in most cases.
"I think this is a crisis. We've seen a 61 per cent increase in the last 10 years of fatal overdoses. There are a lot of people that don't die from overdose but are permanently injured. So we're really dealing with something that's preventable, doesn't need to happen and is happening increasingly and the grief and loss that families experience is really something that we don't talk about nearly enough."
The number of overdose deaths is well on its way to overtaking the national road toll. Mr Ryan says people often do not know the risks when they take prescription drugs.
"So they're combining drugs like oxycodone, or valium, combining opioids, pain killers, and anti-anxiety drugs. In combination they're very dangerous. If you add in alcohol you've got a real recipe for overdose. But not only do people not know how to prevent an overdose from happening, they don't know how to respond when it does happen. They don't know how to identify it and respond."
Matthew Fry, the director of drug and alcohol centre Turning Point, says these medications treat common conditions, but most people don't question what their doctors prescribe.
"Look I think there's perhaps a perception that because they're a prescribed drug, they're a drug that comes from a health practitioner, or a health professional or a doctor, and that they're a drug that comes from a doctor, that they're not risky they don't carry a risk. But in fact these drugs are no different from illicit drugs. In many cases, they carry significant risks and one of those risks is dependence or addiction."
Dr Fry says signs of addiction including taking higher doses than recommended or using medication in combination with other drugs or alcohol.
Former addict Jack Nagle, who now works as an addiction treatment officer, developed a reliance on prescription drugs and took up to 20 pills a day, before he overdosed.
He says it's easy to grow dependent on these drugs.
"Things like oxycontin (aka oxycodone) and endone are just as addictive as taking heroin and people unfortunately get hooked and addicted to those medications and continue to take them and really suffer the consequences of it being quite hard to come off in the long-term, as well as dealing with their chronic pain."
Dr Fry, from Turning Point, says it is a public health issue that must be addressed.
"These medications all come from doctors, they all come from health professionals. So we have the ability to rein this in and manage this because the source of these medicals is the medical profession."
The Pennington Institute's John Ryan agrees the accidental deaths from prescribed medicines are entirely preventable with greater education and community awareness.
"It's really important Australia faces up to the fact that we've got a drug problem in Australia. It can't be solved by the police. These are mostly pharmaceutical drugs. They're from the doctor and the pharmacists. It's not really police core business, this is a health problem, we've got to deal with it as a health problem. We've got to intervene early when people are at risk of addiction. And we've also got to get better access for treatment for people who are addicted."
He hopes an awareness or education campaign will help people better respond in cases of an overdose and as well as getting rid of the shame associated to drug overdose.
This Wednesday (31st) is International Overdose Awareness Day.
