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ALMOST 800 PEOPLE died from drug overdoses, or from the effects of drug use, in 2017, according to new figures from the Health Research Board.
The latest figures for 2017 show 376 people died from a drug overdose that year, with a further 410 deaths caused as a result of medical conditions or trauma among people who use drugs.
Several different types of drugs including alcohol, cocaine, prescription drugs and heroin were recorded in the drug-related deaths that year.
Prescription drugs were involved in 253 of the 376 deaths caused by overdosing or poisoning, while around a third, or 125 deaths were caused by alcohol poisoning.
Benzodiazepines (benzos) were the most common prescription drug involved in drug-related deaths – they were implicated in 139 individual deaths. Methadone was implicated in 95 of all drug poisonings.
Meanwhile, heroin was implicated in 77 overdoses, while cocaine-related overdoses increased from 42 in 2016 to 53 in 2017.
The data, collated in the drug-related death index, is collated from four sources: coroner’s reports, the hospital in-patient enquiry scheme, the CSO and the Central Treatment List.
Mixing
Some 218 deaths were caused as a result of mixing drugs – an average of four different drugs were taken in these cases.
The report found that alcohol was often mixed with opioids, and heroin was often mixed with benzos.
All benzos-related deaths, 139 in total, involved other drugs, mainly opioids, while 64 alcohol-related deaths involved other drugs, mainly opioids.
“‘Behind these numbers are people whose lives were cut short. By collecting this data, the HRB can monitor trends over time which helps service providers design appropriate interventions to support recovery and save lives,” Dr Darrin Morrissey, chief executive at the HRB said.
Meanwhile, of the more than 400 non-poisoning deaths, 196 were caused by drug-related trauma, while 214 were caused due to medical issues.
Deaths due to hanging increased from 98 in 2016 to 114 in 2017. The majority of these involved men but there was also an increase in the number of women who died by hanging from 16 in 2016 to 25 in 2017.
Six in every 10 people who died this way had a history of mental health problems.
Another 56 people died as a result of cardiac events. The average age for deaths due to medical causes was 49 years in 2017.
“More than one person died from overdose each day in 2017,” Ena Lynn, research officer at the HRB said.
“They would typically have been male, aged in their 30s or 40s and taking a mixture of drugs, many of which are legal, such as methadone, alcohol, or benzodiazepines.
“A cocktail of drugs was present in three in five poisoning deaths. Mixing drugs is known to cause more complications and increases the risk of overdose as is evident in this HRB data.”
Tragedy
Tony Duffin, CEO of the Ana Liffey Project said: “Each one of those 786 is a person, someone’s child. Someone’s son, daughter or friend.
“Drug related deaths are not just an individual tragedy, but a tragedy for families and broader communities. What is particularly concerning is that the average age of those that died of overdose was just 43, meaning a lot of years of life lost unnecessarily.”
The board said the total number of deaths is likely to be revised upwards as new data from closed inquest files becomes available.
Yesterday, a report from the Policing Forum Network found that children are becoming involved in criminal activity in Dublin with some as young as 10 or 11-years-0ld, are also groomed to be “runners and carriers” of drugs.
Young children, the report notes, are also considered “expendable” and “plentiful.
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Very interesting. So 83% of deaths were from legal drugs. I think this makes it clear its time to legalize marijuana and psychedelics and decriminalise all other drugs and provide support to those in addiction.
@Frank Discussion: No thanks.
@Chin Feeyin: Thanks for that helpful contribution.
@Chin Feeyin: Since you are making fun of Sinn Féin and you are saying no you must be a DUP member.
@Chin Feeyin: classic SF mentality, against everything and obstinate. You’re as bad as the entities you claim to be against.
@Chin Feeyin: Tis a good job that right wing authoritarian muppets like you are in decline.
@Frank Discussion: As a 29 Engineer I agree 100%
And yet you see a sporadic MDMA death and its plastered all over the news for a week. Here are the facts, good to see the truth printed for once.
@Peter Hughes: Who are you annoyed at? Every year reports like these are published. Every year news agencies report them in detail and they get a few clicks. Meanwhile, when a 21 year old dies from an OD of cocaine, it generates 50 times as many clicks. I get how folks can be annoyed with the media, but this is on us too. We’re the ones who feed off of trashy stories and don’t discuss the real issues at play or the bigger death toll.
“Glad to see cannabis so high up on the list of deaths” Said no one ever in history.
@Euro McPúnty: You just have to visit the psychiatric hospital to find the victims of cannabis abuse.
@Thunder Snowman: that’s bull.
@Thunder Snowman: any links to back up such a claim? Or are your rosary beads too tight and thus stopping oxygen flowing to your brain?
@milton friedman: the only victims of cannabis abuse are the snacks in my kitchen
@Thunder Snowman: how many “victims” of alcohol abuse.
@Thunder Snowman: What? Explain yo’self.
@Euro McPúnty: well said
@Thunder Snowman: complete nonsense
@Thunder Snowman: Got any evidence to back up that claim?
136 people have died on the roads so far this year and look at the money poured into that by the state, easy political optics. 800 from drugs most of them legal and barely makes the news. What are the numbers of poor souls who took their own lives?
@FartyTowels: Please keep in mind, the numbers for suicides are reported by the CSO in their statbank tables and you can query all years going back to the late 90s I think (maybe 2000). What you’ll find is a very steady decline in the number of suicides in Ireland per year over the last 20 years (bar I think, 2013, when there was a spike). Overall, the progress we’ve made as a nation in recognising the importance of mental health is really heartening – we’re transformed since the 90s – and thousands more people are alive today thanks to this progress. Newspapers could lead with that story on the front page for a week, but it wouldn’t stop your average commenter from saying everything is getting worse all of the time! In terms of road safety, 678 people died on Irish roads in 1978 compared to 148 in 2018. Slow and steady progress is what’s happened, but it’s hard to see.
@Ciarán Ó Fallúin: A good point well made.
Interesting to see that all the benzodiazepine deaths were in combination with other drugs. Was any of the benzodiazepine prescribed by an MD, I wonder. I am all for legalising marijuana. Then we can step back and consider doing the same for other street drugs. There will always be addiction and people who die from it; alcohol taught us that
@Rathminder: all of it was. People pretend they’re miserable to the doctor and sell the drugs they’re prescribed. You can even go to different doctors and pharmacies. I had to pick up something for a relative and wasn’t allowed once, though I went to my local pharmacy where they know me and got it no problem.
During the heroin scurge of the late 70s and early 80s , the Garda and the state were happy to leave the problem in the deprived areas it affected , not until it flooded out of these areas and so called celebraties and people of a wealthy background started to die from overdose’s did the Garda and the state decide to take notice
800 deaths which can be verifiably said to be from drugs. I think that perhaps there are a whole lot more which go under the radar of that classification. And the ever present phantom of suicide in Irish life. How many of those are a desperately sad reaction to an inability to cope with the fallout of addiction?
So no one died from smoking cannabis. Unbelievable Jeff!
It’s the Legal prescription Drugs that Kill but covered up because it’s Big Business
Self inflicted
This is over twice the amount that died on our roads look at the resources that have been pumped into that.Every town in Ireland is overflowing with drugs with Garda turning a blind eye while persecuting young drivers
So almost 3 thirds of Death have been caused by Alcohol and Prescription Drugs !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is over twice the amount that died on our roads look at the resources that have been pumped into that.Every town in Ireland is overflowing with drugs with Garda turning a blind eye
have your say