Increasing age and lethal opiate use.

Opioid abuse is a leading cause of drug-related morbidity and mortality worldwide. It has been suggested that the age of opiate users in Australia is rising. To evaluate this further in a local population, toxicology and pathology case files from Forensic Science SA, Adelaide, South Australia, were examined for all cases with lethal opioid levels from 2000 to 2019 ( = 499; M:F 2.