In 2023, 3,618 deaths in England and Wales[1] and 1,172 in Scotland were recorded as “drug misuse”.[2] Deaths from drugs overtook traffic fatalities in the United Kingdom as a leading cause of death in 2008, and the numbers have continued to rise.
Those most likely to die are working class, over 40 and living in de-industrialised areas. Rates of death in the most deprived areas are 9 times those in the most prosperous.[3]
The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs recommended in 2016 that there should be wider provision of naloxone (which can be used to block the effects of opioid overdose), central funding for heroin-assisted treatment, medically-supervised drug consumption rooms and more opioid substitution therapy. However, between 2014–15 and 2021–22, spending on adult drug treatment services fell by 40%.[4]
The Scottish Drugs Forum predicts more than 1,000 drug related deaths in 2018 in Scotland where deaths have more than doubled since 2007 when there were 445. In the lead up to International Overdose Awareness Day called for heroin-assisted treatment and greater use of take home naloxone kits.[5]
Scotland has the worst drug-related/misuse mortality rate in Europe[6] and in the UK as a whole. It is 3.5 times higher than England and Wales. In 2021, a total of 1,330 people died from drug-misuse.[7]
In the most deprived areas, the mortality rate is 18 times higher compared to the least deprived areas. There is also a gender divide within mortality rates, Males are significantly more affected by drug-misuse mortality rates then females. In 2021, the rate was 35.8 per 100,000 population in Males to 14.7 within Females.[8] Age wise, the bands of 35 to 54 year olds suffer the most and make up approximately two-thirds of drug-misuse deaths.[9]