Drug deaths reach record high in England and Wales

The number of people dying from drugs has reached a record high in England and Wales – with 3,744 drug poisoning deaths last year.

The majority of those who died in 2016 were poisoned by opiates like heroin, morphine or methadone.

But new statistics show a dramatic rise in the number dying from two misused prescription drugs.

The number of people dying from taking pregabalin, which is prescribed to treat seizures and anxiety, has risen by 2,775% since 2012 – to 111.

And the number dying from using gabapentin, used to treat epilepsy and neuropathic pain, rose 737%, to 59, figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show.

Overall, the rate of drug deaths among the general population in England and Wales rose from 65.1 per million in 2015 to 65.8 per million in 2016.

The ONS said the annual rise was statistically not significant, but when compared to the figure for 2012, the number of people being poisoned to death by drugs overall has risen 44%.

The small rise overall in the last year is largely attributable to the number of deaths caused by heroin or morphine – the biggest killers – remaining relatively stable, rising from 1,201 to 1,209.

The ONS says the figures relate to all deaths which occur as a result of drug poisonings: those involving prescription and non-prescription drugs and those that involve suicide and accidents from drug misuse or dependence.

But the statistics do not include deaths which were attributable to other causes – for example anaphylactic shock or accidents when someone was under the influence of drugs.

In January 2016, the chair of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, Les Iversen, wrote to Home Office minister Karen Bradley highlighting increasing misuse of pregabalin and gabapentin and recommending they be reclassified as Class C drugs.

Part of the problem, he said, was that in the UK, pregabalin and gabapentin prescribing had increased by 350% and 150%, respectively, in the previous five years.

Both drugs remain prescription-only in the UK, even though pregabalin has been designated a Schedule V controlled drug in the US.

The figures show that the majority – more than 70% – of drug misuse deaths are accidental and the highest death rate occurred in the group aged from 40 to 49 years old.

The highest rate was among the 30-39 age group from 2003 to 2013 and in 2015.

The number of 20 to 29-year-olds dying from drugs has been falling since the early noughties, so that in 2016, the lives of more 50 to 69-year-olds per million were taken by drugs than those aged 20-29.

Deaths from fentanyl – a drug that is becoming a widespread problem on the streets of Britain, claiming the lives of users unaware of its potency – rose to 58 in 2016, up from 22 in 2012.

Meanwhile, the number of people dying from taking new psychoactive substances – so-called legal highs – also rose, to 123, up from 55 in 2012.

(c) Sky News 2017: Drug deaths reach record high in England and Wales