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Occasional Paper

Types of Drug Involved (Table 5 and Table 6)

12. Table 5 and Table 6 give information on the involvement of selected drugs, either alone or, more commonly, in combination with other drugs. Since the tables record individual mentions of particular drugs they involve double counting of some deaths. It is believed that for the overwhelming majority of cases where morphine has been identified in post-mortem toxicological tests its presence is a result of heroin use. The tables therefore show a combined figure for 'heroin/morphine'.

13. In 2000, the drugs listed were known to be involved in 259 of the 292 deaths. Heroin/morphine was involved in 196 (67 per cent) of the deaths; diazepam was involved in 146 (50 per cent) of the deaths; and methadone was involved in 55 (19 per cent) of the deaths. A wide range of drug combinations was recorded. Of particular note was the fact that diazepam was also mentioned in over half (104) of the 196 deaths involving heroin/morphine. The presence of alcohol was mentioned for 123 of the 292 drug-related deaths in 2000. The blood-alcohol level was not given for all cases but, where mentioned, it was often at a relatively low level.

14. Table 5 shows that there has been marked increase in the involvement of heroin/morphine, and to a lesser extent diazepam, between 1996 and 2000. However, over the same period there has been a significant reduction in the involvement of methadone.

15. Table 6 shows some geographical differences in the reported involvement of certain drugs. For example heroin/morphine was mentioned in a much larger proportion (85 out of 104) of the deaths in Greater Glasgow than in Lothian (15 out of 37). Of the benzodiazepines, diazepam was involved in many deaths throughout Scotland but temazepam was involved mainly in the West.