Surge in deaths among 40- to 49-year-olds last year helps fuel another record high in drug use deaths

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

People in the “Trainspotting generation” are most likely to die from drug use, after a sharp rise in deaths among 40- to 49-year-olds last year, official statistics show.

The mortality rate among this age group rose from 95.1 deaths per million people in 2015 to 108.0 in 2016, helping fuel another record high in drug use deaths (those involving illegal drugs), which hit 2,593 last year, up from 2,479 in the previous 12 months.

The only other age group that experienced an increase in drug use mortality was the 20- to 29-year-old category (from 39.8 deaths per million to 43.7 deaths per million), according to the Office for National Statistics figures published on Wednesday.



People aged 20-29 had the highest mortality rate until 2003 when they were overtaken by 30- to 39-year-olds. But the death rate in the latter group fell last year to 97.5, from 98.4 in 2015.

Rosanna O’Connor, director of drugs, alcohol and tobacco at Public Health England (PHE), said: “Many of these deaths can be explained as the Trainspotting generation, often with poor physical and mental health, sadly losing their battle with long term addiction to drugs.

“A large number of heroin deaths are among those people not in treatment. Services need to increase their efforts to reach out to those most at risk. PHE will continue to support local authorities in delivering tailored, effective services where people stand the best chance of recovery.”

Opiate overdoses accounted for 54% of all drug-related deaths last year, although heroin and morphine deaths stabilised after a period of large yearly increases.



Deaths related to heroin and morphine more than doubled between 2012 and 2016 from 579 to 1,201, after a period known as the “heroin drought” in 2010-11, where purity declined and prices increased.

Last year, the number of heroin and morphine deaths was 1,201, although Harry Shapiro, director of DrugWise, said it was too early to say the trend had been bucked.

He said: “The chances of an old person succumbing increase. Their constitutions cannot cope especially if someone takes fentanyl. There’s been a large increase in fentanyl deaths, which are almost certainly heroin-related deaths.”

The National Crime Agency said on Tuesday it was linking at least 60 drugs deaths in the UK in the past eight months to the synthetic opioid fentanyl, which is being mixed with street heroin to make it more potent.

Many deaths involving fentanyl-laced heroin were too recent to be reflected in the ONS figures but they still showed a large increase from 34 in 2015 to 58 in 2016.

Experts have warned that the arrival of fentanyl on the UK illegal drugs market could turn the crisis of heroin deaths into an epidemic.

Charities report that many people who started using heroin in the 80s and 90s are still addicted to the drug. A large proportion have failing health owing to high levels of smoking, chronic alcohol use and poor diet, as well as drug use, and are increasingly vulnerable to overdose.

“If a young person dies [from a drug overdose] it can make the front page, and of course it is a tragedy,” said Niamh Eastwood, executive director of the drug information charity Release. “If a 40-year-old man who lives in poverty and deprivation dies, that’s not going to make news. This group is incredibly marginalised and their deaths don’t seem to attract the same attention.”



Shapiro said: “The trend in recent years has been a lot of deaths have occurred in people not in treatment. Drug treatment centres are under a lot of financial pressure because they are not centrally funded anymore.

“The message to those who commission drug treatment services is to make sure they are funded properly and and steer people away from injecting heroin, which is how most people die.”

Deaths from cocaine (371), amphetamines (160) and new psychoactive substances, or legal highs, (123) continued the upward trend they have shown since since 2012.

The mortality rates for men (67.1 deaths per million people) and women (24.2 deaths per million) from drug use last year were at their highest levels since records began in 1993, though in both cases there was no statistically significant increase from 2015.

The number of drug poisoning deaths, which includes those involving legal and illegal drugs, also continued to rise and hit a record high (3,744).

