More than 1000 people have died from unintentional drug-induced deaths in the Hunter and Central Coast over a decade.
The rising rate of overdoses in the region has prompted calls for Newcastle to have a safe injecting centre.
The data shows Newcastle placed second within the top 10 in NSW for unintentional drug-induced deaths from 2015 to 2024.
Newcastle recorded 196 of these deaths over this period, behind Inner Sydney with 355 deaths.
Most drug-induced deaths are caused by a combination of drugs. Opioids, amphetamine-type stimulants, benzodiazepines and alcohol were the top four drugs involved.
Kiah Glasson, a peer worker in the drug and alcohol sector, said Newcastle should have a supervised injecting centre.
"It's a no-brainer," Miss Glasson said.
Penington Institute senior policy officer Rhys Cohen said "many of the services set up to support or prevent overdose deaths are in Sydney".
"There's one supervised injecting centre in the state and it's in Sydney. If you're in Newcastle, you're not commuting to Sydney to inject heroin," Mr Cohen said.
Uniting NSW, which runs the Sydney injecting centre at Kings Cross, has proposed expanding such centres across the state within existing health infrastructure.
Research shows more of these injecting centres would reduce overdose injury and death, along with pressure on hospitals and ambulances.
Alice Salomon, head of advocacy at Uniting NSW, said "we must expand harm reduction services".
Ms Salomon said drug overdoses were an escalating and preventable health crisis across the state, including the Hunter.
She said more permanent sites were needed for people to test the safety of their drugs, along with "more supervised injecting spaces".
Australia has cracked down on prescriptions for opioids and benzodiazepines, leading people to buy online drugs from overseas that can be stronger and riskier.
"For 25 years, Uniting's Medically Supervised Injecting Centre in Kings Cross has supervised 1.3 million injections," Ms Salomon said.
The centre has safely managed more than 12,000 overdoses without a single death.
"This is a proven life-saving service, yet the Minns government denies communities like Newcastle access by refusing to change a sentence in legislation, which restricts this service to the one Sydney location," Ms Salomon said.
NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said "at this stage, the need for additional medically supervised injecting centres has not been sufficiently established".
"The government will continue to explore alternative ways to improve harm reduction models," Mr Park said.
"We've recently announced an investment into more pill testing services at music festivals. The government has committed $638.7 million in the 2026-27 budget to alcohol and other drug services and programs across the state."
Penington Institute data reveals the rate of unintentional overdose deaths in the Hunter and Central Coast is increasing.
The data showed the rate of these deaths had risen from 6.1 per 100,000 population for 2010 to 2014 to 7.9 from 2020 to 2024.
Mr Cohen said there was "no silver bullet for solving the overdose crisis".
"However, there are tools that we know work well and save lives, but do not receive the level of financial or community support they should," he said.
He said these include supervised injecting rooms, needle syringe programs, methadone clinics and other pharmacotherapy treatments for opioid use disorder.
"These are evidence-based solutions that save lives, but people aren't able to access them," he said.
Miss Glasson said there were not enough of these tools in the Hunter.
She said people using peptides and performance-enhancing drugs were increasingly using free needles and syringes, despite many having the money to buy them from pharmacists or online.
"They are taking away a resource put there for a vulnerable population," she said.
She said the needle and syringe program was funded for people at risk of bloodborne viruses, yet "we have seen that funding reduced year on year".
Another key tool was the pharmaceutical naloxone, which can rapidly reverse an opioid overdose.
"If only every first aid kit had naloxone in it," Miss Glasson said.
"It's a nasal spray you push into the nose. We're past the days of having to inject a needle into a person's leg."
Penington's latest overdose report showed 2024 was the deadliest year on record for drug overdoses in Australia, with unintentional drug-induced deaths having "the highest per capita rate on record".
People aged 50 to 59 account for the largest number of unintentional overdose deaths.
In NSW, there were 587 unintentional overdose deaths in 2024. Across Australia, this figure was 2091 - about 800 more deaths than the road toll.
