There were 1,279 deaths involving cocaine registered in 2024, which was 14.4% higher than the previous year (1,118 deaths) and eleven times higher than in 2011 (112 deaths). The largest decrease in the rate of drug-poisoning deaths was recorded in the South West, with 83.0 deaths per million and 460 deaths, compared with 95.7 deaths per million and 526 deaths in 2023. Because of registration delays, 62.8% of deaths registered in 2024 occurred in previous years.
- Twenty-seven per cent of women reported either being a parent or living with a child when they started treatment, compared to 15% of men.
- As a result, this estimate does not provide a measure of all drugs captured by the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016.
- Alcohol and drug misuse and treatment in children (aged 17 and under) from the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System (NDTMS).
Most people use e-cigarettes to help them quit smoking
Federal nonviolent drug releasees recidivated at 49.3% within 8 years, USSC 2021 follow-up. Nonviolent drug offenders had a 55% reincarceration rate within 5 marijuana addiction years, lower than violent (83%), BJS 2018. Within 3 years of release, 66.7% of nonviolent drug offenders were rearrested in 2005 cohort, BJS Recidivism Study. In federal facilities, 74% of drug offenders (24,100 individuals) in 2021 were convicted of nonviolent trafficking or possession offenses, USSC data. Federal prisons held 46,290 individuals convicted of simple possession of drugs, a nonviolent offense, as of September 30, 2022, per U.S.
Trends in substance use treatment
This multifaceted approach includes everything from investing in youth programs and education to ensuring equitable insurance coverage for effective treatment modalities. Racial and ethnic differences reveal disparate burdens of substance use, as well as uneven access to treatment services. This means that the estimate of NPS use does not provide a measure of all drugs controlled under the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016.
Buy Industry Reports
Just under half of all adults (44%) received treatment for problems with opiates. A further 25% had problems with other drugs, and over a quarter (30%) had problems with alcohol only. These proportions were similar to previous years, and you can find more detailed information on trends in the ‘Trends over time’ section. Over 47,000 people (47%) said they had smoked tobacco in the 28 days before starting treatment in 2023 to 2024. There was an increase in the proportion of adults entering treatment in 2023 to 2024 with ketamine problems (from 1.6% in 2022 to 2023 to 2.3% this year). When police forces make a drug seizure, the seizure is recorded, as is the drug offence.
Drug use in the United Kingdom
The overall number of people in treatment increased by 2% since last year, with 275,896 people in treatment, the highest amount since 2016 to 2017. You can find a definition of structured treatment in the NDTMS business definitions guidance. This year, injecting status also includes data from outcomes, so there is an additional category for people not currently injecting but whose injecting history was not known.
Trends in use of individual drug types for the year ending June 2022
The range of variability for these drugs will be quite large because of sampling variability so figures will be liable to fluctuation from year to year. Notably these groups include homeless people and those living in certain institutions, such as prisons. For more detailed descriptions on what drugs are included in each year, see Section 1 of the accompanying dataset.
The median time taken to register a drug-poisoning death in 2024 was 214 days in England and 279 days in Wales. The largest increase in the rate of drug-poisoning deaths was recorded in London, with 76.5 deaths per million and 662 deaths, compared with 58.1 deaths per million and 500 deaths in 2023. This definition of a drug misuse death was established by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) cross-UK working group in 2000.
- Data highlight education as another powerful determinant of substance use trends.
- Figure 6 shows the number of people starting treatment in each age group, separated into the 4 substance groups.
- This means they first started using substances before the age of 15, with 4 in 5 children and young people (80%) reporting this.
- But this follows last year’s increase from 1.1% to 1.4%, which was the largest rise in the proportion of people dying in treatment since NDTMS data has been collected.
- Prevalence among 16 to 19 year olds in England and Wales was 4.5% in 2018 to 2019, the highest since 2001 to 2002.
New psychoactive substances and nitrous oxide
In 2024, a total of 2,621 drug-poisoning deaths registered in England and Wales substance abuse in older adults involved opiates and opioids; an increase of 2.7% compared with 2023 (2,551 deaths). The Office for National Statistics (ONS) does not have access to post-mortem reports or toxicology results, so the accuracy of figures depends on the information provided by the coroner on the death certificate. Because of incomplete information, figures for drug misuse and for specific substances are often underestimates.
See below for a text description of the flowchart showing how people are classified into substance reporting groups after entering treatment and undergoing initial assessment. There were increases in the other 2 substance groups (a 9% increase in the non-opiate group and 1% in the non-opiate and alcohol group). People in treatment for alcohol alone make up the next largest group (28%) of all adults in treatment. The number of those rose by 3% from the previous year (from 74,618 to 76,740) but this small increase comes after a decline from a peak of 91,651 in 2013 to 2014.
From 2018 to 2019 to 2021 to 2022, it was consistently over 2.5%, but this year the proportion has decreased to 1.5%. The proportion of children and young people in treatment for amphetamine use peaked at 12% in 2012 to 2013. Since then, there has been a trend of decreasing proportions of children and young people in treatment for amphetamine use (0.6% this year).