On Samuel Morrison's final night, his father found him sitting on the edge of his bed watching television.

He'd popped his head in to say goodnight.

Key points: Fatal heroin overdoses in Victoria reach 17 year high

Fatal heroin overdoses in Victoria reach 17 year high Last year there were 220 fatal heroin overdoses in Victoria.

Last year there were 220 fatal heroin overdoses in Victoria. Most fatal overdoses happened in the Cities of Yarra, Brimbank and Port Phillip

A few hours later, he was found by his brother Luke with a blood-filled syringe next to him.

Just over two years later, the Victorian coroner found there was no evidence Mr Morrison had intended to take his own life, but rather that he had died from an accidental heroin overdose.

He'd had a history of mental health problems and a history of illicit drug use.

But the investigation also uncovered a startling statistic — heroin deaths in Victoria had reached a 17-year high and that number is rising.

"Mr Morrison's death is, tragically, only one of hundreds of heroin-involved overdose deaths that have occurred in Victoria over the past few years," coroner Audrey Jamieson said.

"Each year since 2012 the number of heroin-involved overdose deaths has risen in Victoria, and over time several local government areas in Metropolitan Melbourne have been the location of particularly high numbers of deaths," she said.

The coroner's comments have reignited debate about the impact of the North Richmond safe-injecting room, which opened earlier this year.

Dr Alex Wodak from the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation is calling for a dozen safe-injecting rooms to be set up across Australia. ( ABC News: Michael Barnett )

Up to 300 people a day were expected to use the room during a two-year trial at the North Richmond Community Health Centre.

In her report, the coroner commended the facility.

"This initiative hopefully marks the commencement of renewed engagement in prevention of harms among people who inject drugs," she said.

Victoria's Mental Health Minister Martin Foley said the Government's safe-injecting room was already seeing positive results and had saved "numerous" lives.

"Every single overdose death is a terrible tragedy, which is why we've increased funding for drug services by 57 per cent, to help more Victorians get their lives back on track," Mr Foley said.

"The Liberals plan to close down the [medically supervised injecting room] trial should they win in November, which goes to show just how reckless they are with people's lives."

But the Opposition's Emma Kealy blamed the increase in fatal overdoses on Labor's funding cuts to community mental health.

"If Daniel Andrews really believes drug injecting rooms work then he will surely announce he will open these facilities in the cities of Port Phillip, Melbourne and Brimbank," she said.

"The Liberal Nationals believe a better way to tackle the drug crisis in Victoria is targeted education for younger people, better access to rehabilitation and tougher penalties for drug kingpins who prey on our most vulnerable."

Victoria in grips of 'heroin crisis'

Last year alone, there were 220 fatal heroin overdoses in Victoria.

Up to 300 people a day are expected to use the North Richmond safe-injecting room. ( Bor Slana, file photo: Reuters )

Most fatal overdoses happened in the City of Yarra in Melbourne's inner east and north, followed by the cities of Brimbank and Port Phillip.

In regional Victoria, the cities of Geelong, Bendigo and Ballarat had the most fatal overdoses.

It's a disappointing but ultimately unsurprising statistic, according to Alex Wodak, president of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation.

"I think it's been a crisis for a very long time," he said.

He blamed poor government policy, which treated drug addiction as a crime and not a health issue.

"That's really been the problem all along," Dr Wodak said.

"The people who want to beat the law-and-order drum find that they can easily get elected or re-elected," he said.

"People who are presenting human rights-based, evidence-based policies that really work, struggle to get those things across.

"The community is now starting to wake up to the fact that they've been essentially conned and a lot of money has been wasted to get terrible results."

Dr Wodak has been calling for decriminalisation of drug possession, but also the creation of at least a dozen safe-injecting rooms across Australia, including another five in Victoria alone.

"It's clear that they save lives," Dr Wodak said.

"It was a good idea 20 years ago. We shouldn't have had to … fight for 20 years to get that to happen [in Victoria]. It shouldn't have been as difficult as that."

Penington Institute, a Melbourne-based drug and alcohol organisation which produces Australia's Annual Overdose Report, said Victoria was in the grips of an opioid crisis.

"We need to take drug overdose deaths far more seriously," said John Ryan, its chief executive.

"One absolute no-brainer is cutting the cost of pharmacotherapy programs such as opioid substitution therapy, where a person receives a measured dose of methadone or buprenorphine to wean themselves off opioid drugs," he said.

The "war on drugs" approach is an "abject failure", Dr Wodak says. ( Flickr: Dimitris Kalogeropoylos )

"We must also increase access to naloxone, a life-saving drug with few side effects that can reverse an opioid overdose.

"This medicine needs to be in the hands of people using opioid drugs and the people likely to witness an overdose, such as friend or a family member of someone using opioid drugs."

Dr Wodak said that if Australia's own heroin crisis continued to plough on, more deaths could be expected.

"We are clearly heading towards America," he said.

"What America has shown again and again and again is a failure to grasp the reality that their war on drugs approach has been an expensive, abject failure.

"It's been an expensive way to make drug problems worse."