Victoria will spend $30 million to crackdown on "prescription shopping", in an effort to reduce the number of people dying from overdoses, the State Government has announced.

The real-time monitoring system will allow health professionals to conduct on-the-spot checks before prescribing and dispensing medicines that have a high risk of misuse.

Last year 330 Victorians died due to prescription overdoses, 100 more than those who died from illicit drugs, the Government said.

Health Minister Jill Hennessy said the new system would help doctors to better treat their patients.

"Real-time prescription monitoring will help put a system in place that can help us see where people are doctor shopping, or pharmacy shopping, and clearly developing addictive behaviours towards these sorts of medicines," she said.

"To put up red flags, to deny scripts, and to get people into better sorts of support to deal with an addiction.

"We tend to think we understand what illegal drug addiction looks like. The Victorian Coroner has told successive Governments they need to get this issue out of the shadows."

Sam Biondo, the head of the Victorian Alcohol and Drug Association, said the new system would see addicts getting the help they needed.

"This is a most welcome move, this is something that the community's been waiting for, for many years," he said.

"We've seen the escalating number of deaths arising from inappropriate pharmaceutical use for quite a number of years now, and it's time that this initiative be established."

Ms Hennessy said the use of prescription pills had become a significant issue.

"At the moment, we do not have a system where one doctor knows if the doctor down the road has already prescribed a particular medicine," she said.

"More people die from prescription medicine overdoses than in road accidents [in Victoria]. It's a serious, serious issue and we need to shine a light on it."