Britain has Europe’s highest proportion of heroin addicts and problematic use of novel psychoactive substances, say reports by the European drugs agency

Almost one in three drugs overdoses in Europe were recorded in the UK as the continent’s rate of drug deaths rose for a third year in a row, according to the European drugs agency.

The annual report from the European monitoring centre for drugs and drug addiction (EMCCDA) also said the UK had Europe’s highest proportion of heroin addicts, while separate research found a pattern of problematic use of novel psychoactive substances (NPSs) among poor communities.

Europe’s home affairs commissioner, Dimitris Avramopoulos, said: “Over 93 million Europeans have tried an illicit drug in their lives and overdose deaths continue to rise … I am especially concerned that young people are exposed to many new and dangerous drugs.”

The EMCCDA report aggregates data from the European Union’s 28 member states plus Turkey and Norway to give a broad picture of the continent’s drug markets, consumption trends and related harms.

It registered a total of 8,441 overdose deaths, mainly related to heroin and other opioids, in 2015 – a 6% increase on the 7,950 deaths across the 30 countries in 2014, with increases reported in almost all age groups.

The UK accounted for 31% of those deaths, with Germany in second place on 15%. Although the researchers noted there could be under-reporting in some countries, they said the size of Britain and Germany’s at-risk populations was a factor.

About eight in every 1,000 Britons are high-risk opioid users, the highest rate in Europe. In 2015, the year the EMCDDA’s researchers investigated, England and Wales recorded a 26% rise in heroin deaths.

In separate research published alongside the report, ECMDDA researchers said the UK and Hungary were the two countries that had seen “more extensive use of novel psychoactive substances” among low-income groups and problem drug users.

They noted that although data was patchy and numbers remained comparatively low, a number of national surveys indicated increasing NPS use among problem drug users, who were often taking them in conjunction with heavy use of other drugs such as heroin and alcohol.

A 2015 Public Health England survey of injecting drug users, cited by the research, found almost 9% of respondents had injected mephedrone in the past year. A survey of vulnerable populations in Scotland – including rough sleepers, mental health service users, at-risk young people and others – found in 2016 that 59% reported having used NPSs, of whom 74% had used them in the past year.

“NPS use mainly occurs in a context of polydrug use” and in most cases they “are very rarely reported to be the primary drug used” by high-risk users, the EMCDDA researchers said.

“More often they are are a secondary or tertiary drug, for example when the preferred substance is not available or to heighten the effects of other drugs. This means that it would be uncommon to find many high-risk users, with the exception of specific groups in Hungary and some areas of the United Kingdom.”