Today @ONS have published data on drug-related deaths in 2019 in England & Wales.

This shows deaths at a record high, but for me the really interesting story is the age pattern.

Drug-related deaths have risen hugely in the over-40s in recent years.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsrelatedtodrugpoisoninginenglandandwales/latest

In general, drug-related death rates are much higher among men, but the rise deaths in 50-69 year olds can be clearly seen among women as well.

If we look at geographical variation - drug-related death rates across England and Wales were pretty similar until around 2012 when deaths started rising sharply in the North of England and Wales.

Breaking things down even further, there's a clear association between coastal areas and higher rates of drug-related deaths, with Blackpool having by far the highest rate of anywhere in the country.

This is all very worrying from a Public Health perspective. Although perhaps unsurprising, since funding for alcohol and drug treatment services has been slashed in recent years.

Who knows what impact COVID-19 will have had on this situation.

One final important point: these numbers might look bad, but drug-related harm in Scotland is even higher still. We won't have equivalent figures until later in the year, but this is a comparison of crude drug-related death rates using last year's data.

R code for these plots is here: https://github.com/VictimOfMaths/DeathsOfDespair/blob/master/EWDRD2019.R