Drug-poisoning deaths have surged to a record level fuelled in part by a surge in fatalities involving cocaine, according to official figures published today.
The number of registered deaths involving both legal and illegal drugs in England and Wales last year was 3,744, the highest since comparable records began in 1993.
Of these, almost seven in ten, or 2,593 were classed as drug-misuse deaths.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures show there were 371 deaths involving cocaine, a rise of 16 per cent on 2015.
Statisticians said rising levels in the purity of cocaine could be an explanation for the increase in deaths involving the drug.
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Estimates based on the Crime Survey for England and Wales indicate that the proportion of adults aged 16 to 59 using the drug in powder form has remained broadly steady at just over 2 per cent.
The ONS report said: “The National Crime Agency reports that there was a significant increase in both crack and powder cocaine purity at all levels in 2016, including user-level, which may partly explain the increase in deaths relating to cocaine.”
Cocaine-related mortality rates have been increasing year on year, reaching a record high of 6.4 deaths per one million of the population.
The majority of fatalities linked to the drug occur in men aged 30 to 49, the figures show.
Deaths linked to heroin and/or morphine remained stable last year - with 1,209 compared with 1,201 registered in 2015.
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There were rises in deaths involving the powerful painkiller fentanyl, up from 34 in 2015 to 58 in 2016, paracetamol up from 197 to 219 and new psychoactive substances (NPS) up from 114 to 123.
NPS typically mimic “traditional” drugs such as cocaine, cannabis and ecstasy, and were widely known as “legal highs” before laws criminalising their production, distribution, sale and supply were introduced last
Niamh Eastwood, the executive director of Release, the drugs law charity, said the government should provide harm-reduction services for people using drugs.
“The government must fund the forensic testing of drugs, including at nightclubs and music festivals, so that people can be better informed of the purity and content of any pills or powder that they are taking,” she said.
Martin Powell, of the Transform Drug Policy Foundation, said: “The government must accept responsibility for record numbers of people dying from overdoses year after year.
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“This unacceptably high level of deaths is a direct result of the Home Office’s scandalous approach to drugs. Other countries value the lives of vulnerable people who use drugs enough to implement and fund many measures proven to save lives, like decriminalising drug users, safer drug consumption rooms and prescribing heroin.”