In the 3 non-opiate substance groups, over 90% of people had never injected drugs. In the non-opiate only and non-opiate and alcohol groups, 6% said they had previously injected. Only very small numbers outside of the opiate substance group were currently injecting with just 2% of people in the non-opiate only group, and 1% of the non-opiate and alcohol group. Of those reporting a mental health treatment need, 72% were receiving some form of mental health treatment. A higher proportion of girls who said they needed mental health treatment were receiving a form of mental health treatment when they started alcohol and drug treatment, compared to boys (75% compared to 68%). The proportion of people starting treatment who reported alcohol problems was similar to previous years, with 42% of people in 2023 to 2024 compared to 43% in 2022 to 2023.
Substances reported by adults starting treatment in secure settings
The total number of people who died while in contact with treatment services in 2022 to 2023 was 4,166, or 1.4% of all adults in treatment. This represents an 11% increase of deaths in treatment compared to last year (3,742) and is an increase in the proportion of deaths of all adults in treatment (1.3% in 2021 to 2022). Over two-thirds (71%, or 97,685) of adults starting treatment said they had a mental health treatment need. This is a similar proportion to the previous year (70%), but a large increase from 2018 to 2019 (53%).
- Those earning less than £10,400 per year were more likely to use a drug in the last year (15.2%) than those with higher incomes.
- The proportion of young people who dropped out, had their treatment withdrawn by the provider or left treatment for another unplanned reason has historically been consistently low (5% or less until 2020 to 2021).
- This definition of a drug misuse death was established by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) cross-UK working group in 2000.
Perceived ease of obtaining illegal drugs and new psychoactive substances (NPS) or nitrous oxide
- Since year ending March 2015, the questionnaire has asked about the use of generic, rather than specific, new psychoactive substances (NPS), sometimes referred to as “legal highs”.
- This is much higher for people with opiate problems, with 21% currently injecting and 32% having previously injected.
- Alcohol and drug misuse and treatment in prisons and other secure settings from the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System (NDTMS).
- While younger people are more likely to use drugs, the rate of drug use among people over 40 is increasing faster than it is among younger age groups.
Of those who reported low levels of satisfaction with life, 23.3% also reported last-year use of any drug. This was significantly higher than those who reported medium life satisfaction (13.2%), high life satisfaction (11.7%) or very substance abuse in older adults high life satisfaction (4.8%) (Appendix table – Table 3.01, Figure 12). It is important to note that these demographic factors are not necessarily independently related to drug use and the findings only report on differences between estimates. For example, the relationship between higher drug use and being a student may be driven by age. There were also variations in the proportion of frequent users for the individual drug types.
Download this chart Figure 5: Levels of drug use were higher in those who more frequently visited nightclubs
Like the opiate and crack prevalence rates, the higher prevalence rates are concentrated in the north of England. Rates ranged from 6 per 1000 in Wokingham in the South East to 35 per 1000 in Blackpool. In London, alcohol dependence again followed the same pattern as opiate and crack prevalence. In 2022 to 2023, deaths as a proportion of all in treatment increased compared to last year (from 1.3% to 1.4%).
Treatment outcomes
There were 1,186 seizures of all NPS drugs, a 15% decrease compared to the previous year (1,393). It is important to note that there are many different types of NPS drugs, some of which are new emerging ones, meaning they can be difficult to identify and record. For this reason, some NPS drugs may be recorded in ‘NPS other’ whilst some may appear in the ‘unknown’ category. Police forces seized a higher percentage of the quantity of crack cocaine (84%), methadone (100%), morphine (88%), cannabis plants (100%) and amphetamines (85%) than Border Force in year ending March 2024. alcohol rehab Border Force activity accounted for 19% of drug seizures, but they seized a much higher proportion of the quantity of drugs than police forces.