Drug overdose deaths hit a record high with middle-aged Gen X driving disturbing trend – while Gen Z fatalities fall

Drug deaths in England and Wales have reached an all-time high, driven by a troubling rise of ‘silver snorters’.

A record-breaking 5,448 drug poisoning deaths were recorded in 2023 – a rate of 93 deaths per million people. 

This is the eleventh consecutive annual rise, up on the 4,907 recorded in 2022, and the most since records began in 1993. 

Figures show while deaths spiked among middle-aged Brits, fatalities among Gen Z fell for a third year in a row. 

By drug, cocaine killed a record number of people last year, with annual deaths due to the illicit substance having soared 10-fold in just decade. 

It comes amid a huge explosion in the number of Brits using the party drug. 

Experts who labelled the Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures ‘alarming’ and ‘shocking’ and also warned an increase cocaine’s strength per gram, combined with a drop in its price, could be behind the rise in deaths. 

The ONS’s figures cover drug abuse and dependence, fatal accidents, suicides and complications involving both illegal drugs as well as prescription and over-the-counter medications. 

As with previous reports, around half of the fatalities registered in 2023 will have actually occurred in previous years due to delays in registering deaths and.

Men accounted for two thirds of all registered drug poisonings — 3,645 compared with 1,803 female deaths. 

Of the deaths registered last year, 4,329 were due to accidental poisoning while there were 977 instances of intentional self-poisoning.

Rates were highest among people in Generation X, who were born between 1965 and 1980, and are now in their 40s and 50s.

This so-called ‘Trainspotting generation’, named after the novel-turned film starring Ewan McGregor that highlighted drug use in Edinburgh among teens and young adults in the 1980s and 1990s, had the highest death rate of all groups in England and Wales in 2023. 

The average age of death for drug misuse deaths in 2023 was 44.5 years among men and 47.5 for women. 

While average age has stayed consistent among women since 1993, this has steadily risen for men from the late 1990s. 

Ian Hamilton, associate professor of addiction at the University of York, told MailOnline over-40s are often have ‘a range of physical and mental comorbidities’ that make them ‘particularly vulnerable to fatal drug overdoses’. 

He added: ‘These include liver disease, respiratory and cardiac problems. 

‘They are also twice as likely to smoke compared with the general population and are therefore at greater risk of all the associated health issues related to smoking tobacco.’

Gen Z meanwhile, born between 1997 and 2012 making them 12 to 27-years-old, accounted for only one in 10 drug poisoning deaths. 

The 516 deaths recorded in under 30s is a drop on the 532 logged in 2022 and almost half of the figure in the late 90s. 

‘We have seen that this cohort are far less likely to use drugs or alcohol, as far as we know they avoid these substances as they don’t want to be seen intoxicated either by friends or potential employers,’ Professor Hamilton said. 

‘They have also witnessed the harm these substances have done to those older than them.’

By substance, opiates continued to account for the majority of drug poisoning deaths, at almost half (46.8 per cent). 

This was 13 per cent higher than the previous year, the ONS said. 

Heroin and morphine were also the most frequently recorded opiates on death certificates, with 1,453 deaths mentioning one of the substances in 2023. 

Mixing opiates with other drugs, which can increase the risk of an overdose, could partly explain the rise, statisticians said. 

Cocaine came second, accounting for a fifth of all drug-poisoning deaths, at 1,118.

It marks a 30 per cent spike in cocaine deaths in the previous year and is 10 times the figure seen in 2011, when just 112 deaths due to the substance were registered. 

A quarter of all cocaine-related deaths were among the over-50s, the highest proportion ever recorded. Three victims were over the age of 70.

Britain is believed to snort around 117 tonnes of cocaine per year, according to the UK’s National Crime Agency. 

Last year, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime also revealed the UK has the second highest rate of cocaine use in the world, with one in 40 adults — 2.7 per cent of the population — using the drug, more than any other country in Europe. 

In 2023, Brits also said the drug had become ‘more accessible than ever’, not only offered deals via text or when out at the pub but also on social media. 

They claimed they could now pick up a bag in less than five minutes. 

say they are not only being offered these deals via the traditional text or out in the pub, but on a variety of social media channels. 

Professor Hamilton told MailOnline that an increase in the drug’s overall strength, combined with cheaper prices is likely behind the ‘shocking’ rise in cocaine deaths. 

He said: ‘The 30 per cent rise in cocaine deaths is shocking and sad. 

‘We have seen the popularity of cocaine rising over the last few years, at the same time its strength has increased and prices have fallen or at least not gone up. 

‘This combination of greater potency and value for money will have directly contributed to the rise in fatal overdoses. 

‘Although we don’t have the data it is possible that many people have moved to injecting cocaine which greatly increases the risk of death.’

‘Specialist drug treatment centres need a significant overhaul to help address the record number of drug related deaths. 

‘They need specialist staff who can not only deal with drug problems but all the associated mental and physical problems that accompany them.’

Meanwhile, Clare Taylor, chief operating officer at drug treatment provider Turning Point, also said: ‘The increased deaths from cocaine use is alarming and its vital that services provide advice and support for individuals.

‘These statistics highlight, yet again, the urgent need to seriously address the drug related deaths crisis.

‘All drug related deaths are preventable, and our thoughts are with anyone who has lost someone.’

There was also a geographic divide in drug deaths in England and Wales, with people in the North East (174.3 deaths per million) three times more likely to die from drug poisoning than people in London (58.1 deaths per million). 

London also had the lowest rate for drug misuse deaths (41 per million).

Among the deaths recorded, the North West logged the highest figure with 905 and Wales, the lowest at 318. 

Lee Fernandes, a drug treatment expert at UK Addiction Treatment Group, said: ‘An 11 per cent national annual rise in the number of vulnerable people losing their lives to drugs is a travesty. 

‘Enough is enough now, as a country we need to come together and step up and take real action to flatten this ever rising curve.

‘We urge the Government and Health Authorities to take their heads out of the sand and recognise that we’re on a cliff edge now and to especially acknowledge and take action over the clear North South divide when it comes to drug deaths.

‘People’s lives should not be dependent on a postcode lottery.’