The rapidly rising number of deaths involving cocaine in Wales has contributed to the highest number of drugs deaths across the nation ever seen. Figures for 2021 from the Office for National Statistics show there were 210 deaths from drugs misuse in Wales last year.
The number is the highest since records began in 1993, with the previous record being 208 deaths in 2018. In 2020, there were only 149 deaths although this will have been affected by lockdowns. Although opiates are the most common killers, the number of deaths involving heroin and morphine has fallen in Wales since 2018. The biggest rise was seen in deaths from cocaine.
Wales has a higher rate of drugs deaths than England as a whole but has fewer deaths when compared to population than areas like Yorkshire, the north east and the north west of England.
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The ONS publishes figures for death misuse, in which the underlying cause was drug abuse or dependence or illegal substances, and drugs poisoning which also includes deaths involving anti-depressants and other substances. There were 322 drug poisoning deaths in Wales last year.
Opiates played a part in 149 of those 322 drugs poisoning deaths in Wales last year. Of those, heroin and morphine are the most common opiates being involved in 93 deaths, methadone in 33 and tramadol in 12.
Cocaine played a part in 47 deaths last year in Wales with amphetamines being involved in 18 deaths and 61 deaths involving benodiazepines including diazepam (20 deaths). There were four deaths in Wales last year involving ecstasy and 36 involving anti-depressants. All these are deaths where the drug was mentioned on the death certificate, many of the deaths involved more than one substance.
The figures show that although opiates are the biggest killers, the number of deaths involving cocaine is rising rapidly in Wales. The number of annual deaths involving the narcotic were in single figures until as recently as 2014 but have since rocketed to hit 47 last year.
The figures for Wales, broken down by local authority area, revealed that Swansea is the area hardest hit by drugs deaths. Last year, in 2021, 28 people died from drugs poisoning (which includes drugs misuse). There were 34 deaths the previous year in 2020 and in total 119 people have died from drugs since 2019.
Following Swansea, the areas with the highest number of deaths for 2021 were Cardiff, with 26 deaths, Rhondda Cynon Taf, with 21, Carmarthenshire, with 15, and Bridgend with 14.
However the ONS uses an aged-standardised mortality rate, which looks at the total population and the age structure, to work out the areas hardest hit by drugs in the last three years. This shows that Anglesey, Wrexham, Bridgend and Pembrokeshire are the areas after Swansea where the most people die from drug use.
These are the areas of Wales with the highest rates of drugs deaths
Following the release of the data, charity Barod, which is based across Swansea, Dyfed, Gwent, and Cwm Taf, wrote on Facebook (referencing the number of drug poisoning deaths): "Following the release of the latest DRD figures, we're sad to hear that deaths associated to substance use in Wales has increased by nearly 44%. Our deepest sympathies to the loved ones of the 322 people that lost their lives in 2021. Each and every person.... was a person and someone's son or daughter. We promise that we will do all we can and continue to fight to save lives."
Wales will become the first UK nation to have a nationwide peer-to-peer Naloxone programme, a drug which rapidly reverses an opioid overdose. The Welsh Government and Gwent alcohol and drug service funded a successful eight week long pilot last year to train people with lived experience of addiction to give Naloxone to those at risk of overdosing. The training has been extended across Wales.
In England and Wales, there were 4,859 deaths related to drug poisoning registered in 2021 in England and Wales, up from 4,561 in 2020. That was equivalent to 84.4 deaths per million people - 6.2% higher than the rate in 2020, which was 79.5 deaths per million, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The North East of England continues to have the highest rate of deaths relating to drug poisoning and drug misuse, with 163.4 deaths per million people and 104.1 per million, respectively. London had the lowest rate for drug poisonings, with 47.6 deaths per million people, and the East of England had the lowest rate for drug misuse at 27.4 per million.
According to the figures, men are more likely to die from drug poisoning, with 115.1 deaths registered per million in 2021 (3,275 deaths), compared with 54.1 deaths per million among women (1,584 deaths). Of the deaths registered in 2021, 3,060 were identified as drug misuse.
The ONS said those who are part of the age cohort often referred to as 'Generation X' - born between the late sixties and early eighties - have consistently had the highest rates of drug misuse deaths for the past 25 years. In 2021, the highest rate of drug misuse deaths was found in those aged 45 to 49 years, closely followed by those aged 40 to 44 years.
Approximately half (45.7% or 2,219 deaths) of all drug poisoning deaths registered in 2021 involved an opiate. 840 deaths involved cocaine, which is 8.1% more than 2020 and more than seven times the amount recorded a decade ago (112 deaths in 2011).
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