Scant figures on drug overdoses highlight the need for more research on the subject, according to forensics expert Mario Mifsud.

He was reacting to figures tabled in Parliament showing that 148 drug overdoses were treated at Mater Dei Hospital since the beginning of the year.

When this newspaper asked for a more detailed breakdown of the figures, a spokeswoman for the Health Parliamentary Secretariat said information such as which drugs were involved was not collected by the authorities.

“Just saying 148 overdoses were treated does not give an accurate picture of the situation.

“For instance, this could include those who inflict self-harm using over-the-counter medication and so many other things,” Dr Mifsud said.

A former director of the National Forensics Laboratory, Dr Mifsud, who advised the government on the drug reform White Paper, has spent a lifetime mapping out the island’s drug use landscape.

The total of 148 overdoses could include those who inflict self-harm using over-the-counter medication

He called on MPs to promote increased research into drug use, distribution and manufacturing: a sector which, he believes, is persistently “one step ahead of the game”.

Dr Mifsud dispelled the popular belief that ‘dirty’ or ‘mixed’ drugs were the leading cause of overdose. Drug users were more likely to overdose on drugs that were purer than normal as opposed to others that had been “watered down”, he added.

“Taking stronger drugs than those normally available on the market were more likely to cause an overdose than mixed ones,” he said.

Dr Mifsud said the term OD was riddled with misconceptions, noting that many associated the term with drug-related deaths.

“Many people think overdoses are always fatal, just like many believe they are only caused by heroin.

“Obviously, both of these notions are untrue,” he said, adding opiates caused the most fatal accidental overdoses.

Other common causes of accidental overdoses, he said, included poly-substance use such as mixing excessive alcohol while on drugs.