Elderly people in regional Australia are on-selling prescription drugs to help pay their bills, the Rural Doctors Association has warned.

Key points: Rural health professionals say elderly people are on-selling prescription medications

Rural health professionals say elderly people are on-selling prescription medications 800 Australians die each year from prescription drug overdoses

800 Australians die each year from prescription drug overdoses Death toll is highest in rural and regional areas

Death toll is highest in rural and regional areas Rural Doctors Association wants real-time drug monitoring

Health professionals say some do it to make enough money to get by, while others are being bullied into it by drug dealers.

President of the association, Ewen McPhee, did not know how widespread the problem was, but said misuse of prescribed opioid-based painkillers such as OxyContin and Endone was rife in rural areas.

"You have got people living in sometimes very expensive communities where things like rental and just the cost of daily living [are high]," Dr McPhee said.

"They can use these drugs as a way of making ends meet.

Doctors say misuse of prescribed painkillers such as OxyContin is rife in rural areas ( Lateline )

"It is not at all an appropriate way of using these medications."

Mildura pharmacist, Eric Oguzkaya, said elderly customers tended to "fly under the radar" and on-sold drugs more than professionals suspected.

He has heard reports of elderly people being intercepted and intimidated by dealers outside doctors' surgeries and pharmacies.

"The dealers start with the charm and they start with trying to be friendly," he said.

"Depending on how they go, they can start becoming threatening and asking for their medication if they are not willing to sell it straight up."



Mr Oguzkaya said one customer had been approached by a dealer who convinced them to sell their prescription drugs to help cover the cost of funeral bills.

"The dealer approached and said, 'Look you're going to have lots of funeral bills soon, do you really want to put that burden on your family? Here's some extra money to get you through and you can save your money up so that when the end does come along, you will have the money ready'."

Eight hundred Australians die every year by overdosing on prescription pain killers and the toll is highest in rural and regional areas.

From next year, painkillers containing codeine will no longer be available over the counter, but Dr McPhee, of the Rural Doctors Association, has called on the Federal Government to go further.

"The thing we need is real time drug monitoring," he said.

"It would mean that when a person has a prescription, there is a real time database that that prescription goes onto, so that doctors know exactly what that person is taking, as [would] pharmacists.