Drug-Related Deaths in Scotland in 2005

31 August 2006

The Registrar General for Scotland has today published a short paper summarising information about Drug-related Deaths in Scotland in 2005.

Key points are:

There were 336 drug-related deaths in 2005, which is 20 (6 per cent) fewer than in 2004 and 46 (12 per cent) fewer than in 2002.
Within these totals, the number of deaths of people known or suspected to be drug-dependent fell from 232 in 2004 to 204 in 2005.
Of the 336 deaths in 2005, heroin/morphine was involved in 194 (58 per cent) – compared to 225 deaths (63%) in 2004.
Diazepam was involved in 90 (27 per cent), including 58 of the deaths involving heroin/morphine. Deaths involving diazepam peaked in 2002 and have decreased markedly since then.
Methadone was involved in 72 (21 per cent) of deaths – slightly fewer than last year (80 deaths).
Deaths involving cocaine increased from 38 in 2004 to 44 in 2005.
The number of deaths involving ecstasy fell from 17 to 10 over the same period.
One-third of deaths - 111 - were in the Greater Glasgow & Clyde NHS Board area, with 57 in Lothian and 40 in Lanarkshire.
Deaths in Lothian increased by 21 when compared to 2004, but there were reductions of 40 in Greater Glasgow & Clyde and 16 in Grampian.
83 per cent of those who died were under 45.
Under 25s accounted for 14 per cent of the deaths – down from 23 per cent in 2004.
Over three-quarters of those who died (77 per cent) were men – but the number of women rose from 67 in 2004 to 77 in 2005.

Notes for News Editors

1. The information presented about drug-related deaths in Scotland uses the revised definition for baseline figures introduced in 2001. This definition was agreed by a working party set up following the publication in 2000, by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), of a report on ‘Reducing drug related deaths’. The revised definition is also being used elsewhere in the United Kingdom.