Black market prescription drugs are rife on the streets of Bali as school leavers flock to the party city.
DOCTOR-shopping drug dealers are selling opioids for up to a $100 a pill, fuelling a lucrative black market in Queensland that is leading to a surge in overdoses, some of them fatal.
Law enforcers say the scale of the market for illicit pharmaceuticals is virtually impossible to gauge because the medication is available legally and legitimately used by thousands of chronic pain sufferers.
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Statewide hospital data obtained by The Courier-Mail reveals opioids were responsible for about 4100 overdoses — ranging from mild to fatal — in the past three years.
A 20-tablet box of oxycodone (100mg) can be purchased legally under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme for about $37.
Police say a single pill can be sold illegally for about $100, estimating its street value at $1 per milligram.
Hardcore users seeking a more intense high often crushed and coverted the painkiller to produce “homebake heroin” for injecting, State Drug Squad acting Sen-Sgt Adam Frost said.
Opioid abuse can cause complications including respiratory and heart problems and, in severe cases, coma or death.
Oxycodone, such as that found in Endone, is a popular ingredient on the illicit drug market.
Acting Sen-Sgt Frost said the typical seller obtained prescriptions from GPs after convincing them they were suffering severe pain.
“It’s generally opportunistic — the user gets these pharmaceuticals for their own habit or because they know they can make a few bucks,” he said.
“If they get their hands on a box of 20, they know they can make a real profit.”
He said “unscrupulous” hospital employees, pharmacy workers and relatives of patients who rely on strong painkillers have also been identified as sources of illegally sold pharmaceuticals.
A Brisbane chemist is being investigated for allegedly supplying opioids that resulted in a fatal overdose last year.
Opioid use has been identified as a major factor in Queensland’s rising drug-induced death rate, which was 4.89 per 100,000 people in 2012, according to the Penington Institute, a non-profit think-tank that focuses on substance abuse policy.
Crime and Corruption Commission reports show the market for illicit pharmaceuticals is “active and established” in Queensland.
“The market has evolved with some users now considering prescription drugs their ‘drug of choice’,” a CCC spokesman said.
“There can be a high profit margin for the resale of pharmaceutical drugs.”
Police and the CCC said policing the black market for misused prescription pills such as opioids, morphine and benzodiazepines was difficult because the medication was diverted from a legal industry and proving illegal possession was cumbersome.
More than 16,000 drug overdoses were recorded in the past three years in Queensland, hospital data shows.