Legal drugs, including prescription medication and alcohol, account for three out of four of all deaths directly due to the effects of drugs.
Tranquillisers known as benzodiazepines, methadone and anti-depressant medication, along with alcohol, accounted for 262 of the 350 deaths from poisoning in 2012.
Illegal drugs were implicated in the remaining 87 deaths, or just a quarter of the overall total, according to official figures.
But the National Drug-Related Deaths Index for 2012, published by the Health Research Board, shows that more than half of all deaths from drugs are due to the effects of multiple substances taken at the same time.
Polydrug use has been a growing problem over the last decade, with the number of deaths increasing by 60%: from 118 in 2004 to 189 in 2012.
HRB researcher Ena Lynn said polydrug deaths often included a combination of benzodiazepines, methadone and alcohol.
“There has been an enormous growth in polydrug deaths,” said Joan Byrne of Citywide Drugs Crisis Campaign. “It’s really getting out of hand. People are coming into local groups not with an addiction to one drug, but to two or three.”
In relation to prescription drugs, the index found:
- Benzodiazepines were implicated in 123 deaths (35% of poisonings).
- Anti-depressants were implicated in 77 deaths (22%).
- Other prescription drugs, such as hypnotics and anti-psychotic drugs, were implicated in 74 deaths (21%).
- The index showed that alcohol was involved in the greatest number of deaths, at 126, or 40% of the total number of poisonings. Of these, 76 deaths involved alcohol alone.
Source: Cormac O'Keefe. Irish Examiner, 16/12/14
Safer Student Nights
eBulletin
Poll
