Drug deaths soar to an all-time high, with cocaine fatalities up 80-FOLD since UK records began in 1993 due to ever-growing rise of ‘silver snorters’

The number of drug deaths in England and Wales has reached a record high, partly driven by a worrying rise of 'silver sniffers'.

Official data released today shows that there were 4,907 drug poisoning deaths in 2022 – a rate of 84.4 deaths per million people. This is the tenth consecutive annual increase, more than the 4,859 recorded in 2021 and the largest since records began in 1993.

Cocaine also killed a record number of people last year, with deaths increasing by a factor of 80 over the past thirty years.

It comes amid a huge explosion in the number of middle-aged Brits using the party drug. Dealers who take advantage of the popularity promise to deliver within 30 minutes.

Figures also showed a spike in deaths from common prescription sleeping pills and fentanyl, a painkiller fueling the US opioid crisis.

Cocaine-related deaths reached 857 last year, up from 840 in 2021 and a fivefold increase from 169 a decade ago.

More than a fifth (21.4 percent) of all cocaine-related deaths occurred among the over-50s, the highest percentage ever recorded. Two victims were over 70 years old.

Britain, now considered the cocaine capital of Europe, would do so as well snorting around 117 tonnes of the substance per year, with the market for the illicit drug estimated to be worth more than £25.7 million per day.

Last year, as part of plans to tackle the “scourge of substance abuse in society”, the Home Office proposed increasing tougher penalties for recreational drug users, including confiscating their passports.

In March 2021, then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson is also said to be planning a PR blitz campaign with ads targeting middle-class drug users, with the aim of making cocaine as socially unacceptable as drink-driving.

The ONS figures include drug abuse and dependence, fatal accidents, suicides and complications with controlled and uncontrolled drugs, prescription and over-the-counter medicines.

As with the data for all years, around half of the deaths recorded in 2022 will actually have occurred in previous years due to delays in recording deaths.

Men were responsible for almost two-thirds of recorded drug poisonings (3,240 compared to 1,667 deaths among women).

However, the figure fell from 3,275 last year, while it rose again among women.

Of the deaths recorded last year, 3,859 were the result of accidental poisoning, while 913 were cases of deliberate self-poisoning.

There were 131 deaths from mental and behavioral disorders related to drug use, an increase of 10 percent on the previous year, when 119 were recorded.

About four deaths were also recorded due to drugs, medicines and biological substances.

Nearly two-thirds (3,127) of the total deaths were related to drug abuse.

The numbers were especially high among people from Generation X, who were born between the late 1960s and early 1980s and are now in their 40s and 50s.

This so-called 'Trainspotting generation', named after the novel-turned-film starring Ewan McGregor that highlighted drug use in Edinburgh among teenagers and young adults in the 1980s and 1990s, had the highest death rate of any in 2022 groups in England and Wales. .

The average age of death for drug abuse deaths in 2022 was 44.5 years among men and 46.5 years among women.

While the average age among women has remained constant since 1993, it has risen steadily for men since the late 1990s.

Ian Hamilton, associate professor of addiction at the University of York, told MailOnline that over-40s are often at greater risk due to 'poor physical and psychological health', which can leave them vulnerable to accidental or intentional overdoses.

He said: 'They often have complicating factors such as poor respiratory health (and given the way opiates can depress respiratory function, this increases the risk of death.

'This group may also have heart problems that regular drug use cannot counteract. They are also less likely to have access to health care services that can help provide treatment and reduce the risk of premature death.”

In terms of substance, opiates continued to account for the majority of drug poisoning deaths, accounting for almost half.

Heroin and morphine were also the most common opiates on death certificates, with 1,256 deaths involving one of the substances listed in 2022.

Statisticians from the ONS say this long-term trend may reflect the fact that long-term heroin and morphine users are increasingly at risk of fatal overdose.

Trends of mixing opiates with other drugs, which can increase the risk of overdose, may also partly explain the increase.

Addictive prescription drugs such as benzodiazepines – including Xanax and Valium – are increasingly seen alongside heroin and other opiates, they noted.

The number of deaths involving benzodiazepines (509) decreased slightly compared to the previous year (538). But it is still almost double the number recorded when registrations began in 1993 (278).

Recent reports have suggested that drugs including benzodiazepines and opiates may have become more powerful, Professor Hamilton told MailOnline.

“Even for those who regularly use these drugs, this can prove fatal as they take the usual amount but do not realize how strong these batches of drugs are until it is too late,” he added.

'Similarly, naive users may be overwhelmed by the stronger drugs and as a result may be at risk of an accidental overdose.'

Lee Fernandes, of the UK Addiction Treatment Group, said the ONS figures show that people who have been addicted to drugs for years are “now also experimenting with taking other substances”, making a user “increasingly susceptible to a fatal overdose '.

He added that such deaths are “unnecessary” and can be prevented “with the right kind of help, empathy and professional support.”

The figures also showed that there were fatalities The common sleeping pills zolpidem and zopiclone rose sharply (37 percent) compared to the previous year, five times as much as in 2003.

Prescriptions for zolpidem this year reached the highest level since records began in 2018 – with 58,000 doses distributed in March.

In September, experts warned MailOnline that record levels for the drug could even be due to abuse by Brits wanting wild sex.

In terms of substance, opiates continued to account for the majority of drug poisoning deaths, accounting for almost half. Heroin and morphine were also the most common opiates on death certificates, with 1,256 deaths involving one of the substances listed in 2022

For years, Z drugs like zolpidem, better known by the brand name Ambien, have been touted as an easy-to-use alternative to older and notoriously addictive tranquilizers.

But it is estimated that one in a hundred users of the drug will experience strange 'sleep-related behaviour', such as sleepwalking or having sex, without being fully aware of it.

Deaths by paraCetamol (261) also increased by 15 percent compared to 2021 (227).

Meanwhile, drug poisoning deaths from ecstasy have fallen to their lowest level since 2014, figures show.

In 2022, around 51 deaths linked to the drug, also known as MDMA, were recorded, a drop of more than a fifth from the previous year (67).

ONS experts did not explain what was behind the decline.

There was also a geographical divide in the number of drug deaths in England and Wales, with people in the North East (133.9 deaths per million) almost three times more likely to die from drug poisoning than people in London (56.6). deaths per million).

The east of England had the lowest rate of drug abuse (37.2 per million).

Of the recorded deaths, the North West recorded the highest figure at 905 and Wales the lowest at 318.

It comes as Britain's first drug consumption chamber could open next summer, under plans backed by the Scottish Government, as a way to tackle its own drug deaths crisis.

In September, authorities in Glasgow announced that the pilot project would take place at a health center on the east side of the city.

The British government has said it is not in favor of drug rooms. But despite the Misuse of Drugs Act being the preserve of Westminster, the Home Office has indicated it will not stand in the way of the pilot project in Scotland.