Drugs caused record number of deaths in England and Wales in 2016

The number of deaths from drug poisoning reached record levels in England and Wales last year, official figures have shown.

The Office for National Statistics, which compiled the figures, said that drug poisoning caused a higher number of deaths to be registered in England and Wales in 2016 than in any year since 1993, when comparable figures started being collected.1

In total, 3744 people in England and Wales had their cause of death registered in 2016 as poisoning by legal or controlled drugs, 70 more than in 2015. Two thirds of these deaths (2593) followed drug misuse.

More than half (2038) of all drug poisoning deaths resulted from an opioid, such as heroin or morphine (1209). Methadone caused 413 deaths; tramadol 184; oxycodone 75; and fentanyl 58.

Cocaine caused 371 deaths, amphetamines 160, and new psychoactive compounds, such as mephedrone, 123. Benzodiazepines and antidepressants of all types caused more than 400 deaths each in 2016.

Equivalent statistics released in September 2016 showed that deaths from opioids in England and Wales had more than doubled between 2012 and 2015, to 1989, in what the president of the Royal College of Physicians’ Faculty of Public Health described in The BMJ as “a public health and primary care emergency.”2

Local authorities took responsibility for drug treatment services in 2012. Izzi Seccombe, for the Local Government Association, said: “The record number of drug related deaths is a major concern to councils and a worrying public health challenge. This is why nine in 10 councils now provide take home naloxone, to tackle overdoses and opiate related deaths in their areas, which may be a contributing factor to the number of heroin related deaths remaining stable in 2016.”

In a statement, Ed Morrow, drug policy lead at the Royal Society for Public Health, said, “Even as opiate deaths level off, deaths related to other substances, such as cocaine, are continuing to rise.

“This is a problem we will only ever be truly able to tackle within a decriminalised framework, and with an adequately funded drug treatment system.”

Steve Rolles, senior policy analyst at the pressure group Transform, which lobbies for drug legalisation, told The BMJ, “This is the fourth year in a row of record drug deaths, but the government’s ideological hostility to proven harm reduction measures continues—even though we know they can reduce the appalling death toll. Worse, we are seeing cuts to the public health budgets that are so vital to protect populations who are at risk. ”

The government released its delayed drug strategy in July,34 which rowed back from 2010s’ change in emphasis to promote abstinence rather than evidence based treatment for people with drug dependency.

Last year the government’s independent experts, the Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs, recommended supervised consumption facilities and heroin assisted therapy for people who inject drugs, but these were not in the government’s strategy.5

The government’s 2017 strategy rejected decriminalising minor drug use, contrary to calls from many quarters, including United Nations’ bodies such as the World Health Organization.

Drug deaths fell substantially in Portugal after it decriminalised non-violent drug use in 2001, from over 70 in 2001 to fewer than 20 in 2012.6

The BMJ, the BMA, the Faculty of Public Health, and the Royal Society for Public Health are building a “coalition of the willing” to galvanise support for drug policy reform among doctors.7

Last year The BMJ said that non-violent drug misuse should be decriminalised and that legal, regulated drug markets should be considered if evidence supports such a move.8