Britain has more drug deaths per head than any other country in Europe, research claims
More Brits die from drugs misuse each year than any other major country in Europe — on average four times more than Germany, France, Italy and Spain
BRITAIN now has more drugs deaths per head than any other major country in Europe, shock new figures show.
There were 83.9 deaths for every million people in the UK from overdoses and misuse last year, The Sun can reveal.
The number is four times the average for similar sized European countries, such as Germany, France, Italy and Spain.
The shock new figure comes as the 20 worst hotspot towns for drug deaths in England and Wales are also revealed.
Twelve of them are on the coast, in an alarming sign of the state of the nation’s once proud seaside resorts.
Blackpool comes top, with 73 drugs deaths in the Lancashire town alone between 2015-17.
The alarming new national figure was calculated by drugs charity Transform, by adding Monday’s new drugs figures for England and Wales with Scotland’s very high figure last month.
Only Estonia (132 per million) and Sweden (88 per million) top Britain’s drugs death figure.
But both have far smaller populations of 1.3 million and nine million respectively.
The Office for National Statistics revealed on Monday that there were 3,756 deaths involving legal and illegal drugs in England and Wales in 2017 - the highest number since comparable records started in 1993.
The new record has been blamed on the spiralling abuse of cheaper cocaine and the spread of powerful synthetic opioids such as fentanyl.
The rise means close to a third of all drugs deaths in Europe now happen in the UK.
Transform insisted the record death rate is proof that the war on drugs has failed.
It contrasted the UK’s shock new figure to Portugal’s - where drugs possession has been decriminalised.
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In Portugal, the drugs death rate is currently more than 20 times lower than in the UK, at just 3.86 per million.
The campaign group’s Head of Campaigns Martin Powell said: “This Government’s failed approach is driving record drug deaths nationally.
“But behind that picture, some towns and cities are suffering a catastrophe, with death rates three or even four times the average.
“Every statistic is a family that might have been spared bereavement if the Government stopped criminalising people who use drugs which pushes them away from help, stopped blocking safer drug consumption rooms, and properly funded treatment.”
Drug poison
THE Home Secretary Sajid Javid has plenty on his plate.
But he should start looking at Britain’s drug crisis sooner rather than later. It is clear that our current laws and programmes are not working.
It’s not just that we have more drug deaths per head than other major European countries.
All you need to do to know that there is something seriously wrong is walk around parts of our city centres or our coastal towns and see addicts — each one a son or daughter, a brother or sister — slipping towards an early grave.
The answer may well be tougher sentences for pushers — but treatment, rather than prosecution, for chronic users. It may even be worth a look at experimenting with decriminalisation. And we definitely need an answer to the “county lines” drug trade.
Regardless, the deaths and the drug-related gang violence must end.
Without change we are sleepwalking towards catastrophe.
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