Prevalence of Opioid Analgesics

"Australia’s consumption of opioid analgesics is ranked 10th internationally; North America ranks first. Per capita consumption of oxycodone and morphine preparations in Australia is relatively high (ranked third and fifth respectively, internationally); Canada ranks first for oxycodone and Austria first for morphine.¹ Consumption levels in Australia are still well below the top-ranking countries. Previous research in Australia has documented increases in the number of prescriptions for morphine in the late 1990s^2,3 and, more recently, increases in consumption of oxycodone.⁴"