The distribution of drug related deaths registered in the UK 2010

The distribution of drug related deaths registered in the UK 2010

• Excluding deaths caused by polydrug use shows that almost all deaths reported as mephedrone deaths, cannabis deaths and ecstasy deaths were misreported in the media. Most were caused by other drugs or mixing with other drugs (such as alcohol). The data in fact shows that there have only ever been two deaths in the UK solely caused by mephedrone  (both last year). There were in fact only five deaths solely related to ecstasy and two deaths solely related to cannabis. This compares to 98 deaths solely caused by paracetamol and 157 deaths solely caused by antidepressants. The major insight from this data is that it is very often dangerous to mix your drugs and it is particularly dangerous to mix drugs with alcohol.

Drug	Deaths in 2010
Heroin and Morphine	487
Methadone	173
All Antidepressants	157
Tricyclic Antidepressants	96
Dothiepin (Antidepressant)	29
Amtriptyline (Antidepressant	55
MAOI’s (Antidepressant)	0
SSRI’s (Antidepressant)	40
Citalopram (Antidepressant)	27
Other Antidepressants	19
Paracetamol	98
Cocaine	59
Tramadol	54
Dihydrocodeine	34
All benzodiazepines	55
Temazepam (benzodiazepine)	11
Diazepam (benzodiazepine)	16
Nitrazepam (benzodiazepine)	0
Zopiclone/Zolpidem (Insomnia)	15
Codeine	34
Antipsychotics (BNF 4.2.1)	34
All Amphetamines	33
Heliub	32
Barbiturates	16
GHB / GBL	6
MDMA/ Ecstacy	5
Aspiri	3
Cannabis	2
Mephedrone	2
BZT / TFMPP	1

Source: Office of National Statistics

This compares to 81,400 tobacco deaths and 8,644 alcohol deaths last year. The ONS records alcohol and tobacco deaths differently from “drug deaths” so suicides and deaths such as road traffic accidents while under the influence  aren’t actually included in the alcohol death statistics but they are included in the drug death statistics making the real disparity even wider than is apparent here.