Britain's Drug Death Disgrace

Today saw the release of the latest ONS data on drug-related deaths in England and Wales. The figures, which are for 2019, are grim yet unsurprising. As Release points out in their press release, “The rate of death relating to drug misuse in England and Wales in 2019 was 50.4 deaths per million people. 2019 is now the year with the highest number of registered drug poisoning deaths since records began.”

Opiate deaths fell slightly, but cocaine-related deaths continued their dramatic rise (11% more compared to 2018). Regional variation in death rates remains a key theme in the data, with the North East facing a significantly higher rate than the national average.

All of this will continue unless politicians recognise that our drug policy is an abject failure. They continue to block sanctioned trials of drug consumption rooms, leaving heroes like Peter Krykant desperately trying to fill in the gaps in Glasgow. They underfund treatment services and devote scarce little time to drug education in schools. And they refuse to rethink the flawed idea at the heart of UK drug policy—that the criminal justice system is best placed to address the root causes of problem drug use. 

Yesterday evening I hosted a webinar with three drug policy experts where we discussed what could be done to stop drug deaths in detail. You can catch up on that in full below: