Drug-related deaths in Northern Ireland double to 218 in 10 years

Some 218 drug-related deaths were registered in 2020, up from 191 in 2019 and more than double the 92 that were recorded in 2010, according to figures compiled by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA).

These figures cover both drug-related deaths and drugs-misuse deaths.

There were 17,614 deaths registered in Northern Ireland in 2020. Drugs-related deaths accounted for 1.2% of this total.

Males accounted for 70.2% (153) of the 218 drug-related deaths.

More than half of the drug-related deaths (55%) were men aged between 25-44 years, while 30.7% were in the 25-34 age group with a further 24.8% in the 35-44 age group.

The figures also show that the age-standardised drug-related mortality rate increased between 2019 and 2020, for males from 14.5 per 100,000 males to 16.7; for females the equivalent rate rose from 6.2 per 100,000 females to 7.0.

Two-thirds (66.1%) of drug-related deaths in 2020 involved two or more drugs. Some 133 drug-related deaths in 2020 had an opioid mentioned on the death certificate.

Heroin and morphine were the most frequently mentioned opioids in 2020, connected to 55 (25.2%) drug-related deaths, up from 46 (24.1%) in 2019 and the highest number on record.

Diazepam was involved in 23.4% of all drug-related deaths in 2020, while deaths involving pregabalin have risen consistently since its first appearance in these statistics in 2013. The annual number of deaths involving this controlled substance rose from nine in 2016, to a peak of 77 in 2019, but reduced slightly to 70 in 2020.

The number of drug-related deaths involving cocaine has remained relatively unchanged since 2019 (36 in 2020), however, the proportion of deaths where it is mentioned on the death certificate has decreased from a peak of 19.4% in 2019, to 16.5% in 2020.

The proportion of all drug-related deaths that also mentioned alcohol on the death certificate decreased from 16.2% in 2010 to 14.7% in 2020. This is less than half of the proportion seen in 2012 when the series peaked at 31.8% of drug-related deaths mentioning alcohol on the death certificate.

The statistics also indicate higher numbers of drug-related deaths in areas of deprivation across Northern Ireland, with those living in the most deprived areas almost five times more likely to die from a drug-related death than those in the least deprived areas.