Signal Drug deaths at highest level since records began in 1993

Summary

The report sees rising serious and organised crime as causing direct harm to people, pointing to drug-related deaths in England and Wales reaching their highest level since statistics began in 1993. This draws on Office for National Statistics data on drug poisoning deaths registered in 2022. Behind it lies continuing growth in drug use, seizures and offences in the UK, with an annual cost to society of over twenty billion pounds. The report expects climate events, economic crises and prolonged conflict to disrupt plant-based drug supply and possibly spur synthetic drug production and trafficking. It stresses that reducing drug and firearms crime also helps keep vulnerable people from being used by organised crime groups.