Drug deaths

Drug use may be going down amongst young people, but overall drug-related deaths last year rose to the highest levels since records began. Legal and illegal drug use was linked to almost 4000 fatalities in 2017 – accidental overdoses accounting for two thirds of that figure.

Three men face jail after they admitted selling a potentially lethal painkiller over the dark web. Leeds Crown Court heard that the gang sold the drug fentanyl to customers throughout the UK and abroad, even though they knew how lethal it was. It’s said to be a hundred times more potent than morphine and the…

Police have arrested three men on suspicion of supplying class A drugs  after a teenage girl and a young man died at a music festival in Portsmouth. Georgia Jones, who was 18, and 20-year-old Tommy Cowan died after they were taken to hospital on Saturday night. Georgia’s mother, Janine Milburn, described her daughter as “full…

The number of women dying as a result of drug misuse has risen by 95 per cent in England and Wales in the last ten years. While fewer women are taking drugs, record numbers are dying from using them. Anja Popp talks to people whose lives have been affected by drug deaths and addiction.