City has one of highest drug rate deaths in SW

TOTAL OF 89 DRUG POISONING DEATHS IN LAST THREE YEARS

- By RICHARD AULT

DOZENS of people died in Plymouth after taking drugs last year, as national figures show record numbers of drug poisonings - with deaths involving synthetic opioids almost quadrupling. New Government figures show that 5,565 deaths registered in England and Wales in 2024 were related to drug poisoning.

That was a 2% increase on 2023, and the highest drug death toll since records began in 1993. That includes 35 deaths in Plymouth, up from 23 in 2023 and 31 in 2022, but lower than the record 45 deaths in 2021 during the pandemic.

Nationally, just under half of drug-poisoning deaths registered last year involved an opiate or an opioid (47%, or 2,621 deaths). Heroine and morphine, often indistinguishable in toxicology testing, were the most frequently mentioned opiates and opioids in death registrations (1,415 deaths).