Drug-related deaths in England and Wales rose 20% between 2012 and 2013, with over half caused by opiates and 30% mentioning alcohol use. Drug deaths account for 1 in 7 deaths among people in their 20s and 30s. Local authorities in England spent over £400 million on substance misuse programs in 2013-14, with 57% directed to adult drug treatment and 20% to services for at-risk youth. Random drug testing found that 8% of UK prisoners tested positive for drugs in 2013-14, with some prisons reporting over 20% of inmates testing positive.

1. 10 things about
alcohol and other
drugs you may have
missed
10 September 2014
Andrew Brown
Director of Policy, Influence and Engagement
DrugScope
@andrewbrown365

2. Number of deaths caused by illegal
drugs in England and Wales, by sex
2,500
2,000
1,500
1,000
500
0
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Males Females
Drug related deaths caused
by illegal drugs rose by 20%
between 2012 and 2013.
Over half of all drug-related
deaths in 2013 were caused
by opiates.
In 30% of the cases there
was a mention of alcohol.
Drug deaths account for 1
in 7 deaths of people in
their 20s and 30s.
Source: Deaths Related to Drug Poisoning in England and Wales, 2013, ONS (2014)

3. Age-standardised mortality rates for
selected substances, deaths registered
in 2012 and 2013
Male Drug Related Deaths
25.0
20.0
15.0
10.0
5.0
0.0
Rate per million population
2012 2013
Female related drug deaths
25
20
15
10
5
0
Rate per million population
2012 2013
Source: Deaths Related to Drug Poisoning in England and Wales, 2013, ONS (2014)

4. Age-standardised mortality rate per 1
million population for deaths related to
drug misuse, for deaths registered in
2013
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
North East North
West
Wales Yorkshire
and the
Humber
South
West
West
Midlands
South East East
Midlands
East of
England
London
Source: Deaths Related to Drug Poisoning in England and Wales, 2013, ONS (2014)

5. Local authority expenditure on
public health 2013-14
0 400000 800000 1200000
Substance misuse (drugs, alcohol and tobacco)
Sexual health services
Miscellaneous public health services
Children 5–19 public health programmes
Obesity
Physical activity
NHS health check programme
Public health advice
Local authority role in health protection
National child measurement programme
£ (thousand)

6. How substance misuse spending by
local authorities broke down in
2013-14
57%
8%
20%
13%
2% Substance misuse - Drug misuse -
adults
Substance misuse - Alcohol misuse -
adults
Substance misuse - (drugs and
alcohol) - youth services
Smoking and tobacco - Stop smoking
services and interventions
Smoking and tobacco - Wider
tobacco control

7. The government estimate that 90% of adult
prisoners had at least one of the following
five mental health or behavioural disorders
(personality disorder, psychosis, neurosis, and
alcohol misuse and drug dependence).
NB this data comes from a 1998 survey, apparently it has not been repeated since
Sources: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2014-09-05a.207561.h referencing ‘Psychiatric
Morbidity among Prisoners in England and Wales’, ONS (1998)

8. Percentage of prisoners testing
positive for drug use from all randomly
tested prisoners for the last 5 years
9.0
8.0
7.0
6.0
5.0
4.0
3.0
2.0
1.0
0.0
2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14
Source: Prison performance digest: 2013 to 2014

9. Prisons where more than one in ten prisoners,
subject to random mandatory drug testing,
tested positive for drugs in 2013/14
25.0
20.0
15.0
10.0
5.0
0.0
Brixton
Birmingham
Liverpool
Bristol
Durham
Northumberland
Pentonville
Wandsworth
Hewell
Brinsford
Elmley
Wormwood Scrubs
Blundeston
Leicester
Stoke Heath
Nottingham
Rochester
Preston
Chelmsford
Leeds
Bullingdon
Source: Prison performance digest: 2013 to 2014

10. Offenders found guilty and sentenced to
immediate custody for possession of a
controlled drug, by class of drug, England and
Wales, over the last 5 years
1600
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Class A Class B Class C
Source: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2014-09-03a.206953.h
In the last 5 years
there has been a fall
of 6.8% in the
number of people
found guilty of
possession offences
and an 11.3% fall in
the use of custodial
sentences

11. Number of female offenders aged 18 and above
sentenced to immediate custody for a first
drug offence by ethnicity in England and Wales,
2012-13
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
2012 2013
Unknown
Other
Asian
Black
White
Source: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2014-09-08b.207307.h#g207307.r0