“This is a public health emergency that demands action.”
The statistics from the Office for National Statistics do not show deaths which happened in a given year, but those registered in that year – which means delays in inquests and coroners’ reports can impact the figures. Some 62% of the deaths in 2024’s statistics didn’t happen in 2024.
This gap has led to warnings that attempts to save lives may not understand the true scale of the problem.
“While nitazenes were implicated in 195 deaths in 2023, we know that the situation has got much worse and the number of people dying will continue to grow, we have a toxic drug supply, these deaths are avoidable,” said Niamh Eastwood, executive director of Release.
Eastwood said, beyond official statistics, her organisation was already seeing the situation get worse on the frontline.
“The rise in deaths linked to nitazenes is a public health emergency. Through our work at Release, including our harm reduction hub in London, we’re seeing a rapidly worsening situation, nitazenes are contaminating not just the heroin supply, but also benzodiazepines such as Xanax, and even oxycodone pills sourced from the dark web – many young people are accessing these drugs,” Eastwood said.
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Nitazenes, many times stronger than heroin and often taken accidentally, can kill quickly. Deaths can appear in clusters, such as in Birmingham, where 21 people died in a few weeks in the summer of 2023.
Big Issue has reported extensively on the lives claimed by nitazenes, including a cover story in October 2024 exposing how the deaths unfolded and how the city’s authorities reacted.
Caroline Copeland, who leads the National Programeme on Substance Use Mortality at King’s College London, said the result of delayed information was a response which risked being out of touch.
“We might now be trying to address a problem that has moved onto something else,” said Copeland.
The ONS’s figures show 195 deaths from nitazenes recorded in 2024, up from 52 in 2023. But Copeland said the increase from 2023 to 2024 could have appeared even higher were it not for the speed of the Birmingham and Solihull Coroner, which registered the spate of deaths in summer 2023 with unusual speed, allowing them to fall into 2023’s figures.
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“The most popular, prevalent substances only hang around for a couple of years. So if we are relying on old figures for our public health response, we are spending money on prevention measures that are out of date.”
She added: “If you think you’ve only got a certain number of people but you’ve got 30, 40% more. That’s not going to be enough. If you’re a shop that has 30 to 40% less stock than anticipated, you’re going to have to shut early.
“It’s just carrying on. Deaths continue. How many times can we say it’s the highest since records began before this becomes an issue?
In Scotland, however, recent statistics showed drug deaths are falling, hitting their lowest levels since 2017.
Mike Trace, CEO of the Forward Trust and former government drug czar, said England and Wales’ rising deaths figures “raise concerns about the impact on the government’s approach to tackling addiction – we must not be behind the curve on our response.”
Trace added: “The publication of these statistics come at a time when we are seeing more dangerous drugs entering supply chains – this catastrophic public health crisis is not making the headlines it should be.”
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