Drug related deaths continue to be a public health crisis

4 NOVEMBER 2026 – Drug related deaths continue to be a public health crisis, with opioids and cocaine driving preventable loss of life. The Government must act urgently.

• Cocaine deaths have out-stripped heroin deaths for the first time. But opiate-related deaths are still a massive concern.  
• Drug-related deaths have slightly decreased – this remains a public health crisis. 

New figures from the Office on National Statistics shows that cocaine-related deaths have overtaken opioid-related fatalities for the first time in 2025, with 1,233 deaths related to cocaine and 1,210 related to heroin or morphine. However, deaths where all opiates were all involved continue to be higher than cocaine.  

For the first time, cocaine is the drug most involved in drug-related deaths: it was found in 22.3% of all drug-related deaths. The overall figure is a decrease from 2024 but remain more than eight times higher than what they were 15 years ago.

However, opioid-related deaths continue to represent a large portion of drug deaths with 2,324 opioid-related fatalities reported in 2025: 21.9% of deaths in 2025 involved heroin or morphine. Nitazenes remain prominent, dropping from being related to 195 deaths in 2024 to 150 in 2025. 

Deaths are five times higher in the most deprived areas than the least deprived, while an estimated 32% of deaths amongst people who are homeless are drug-related (Museum of Homelessness, 2026).  

Many of these deaths are preventable. However, the Government refuses to take the necessary action to reduce barriers to seeking help and deal with the increasingly unpredictable drug market, which over the last five years has seen a rise in synthetic opioids and increased cocaine availability and higher purity.  

This is not only a failure of national policy but also international drug control, cocaine production has for the last few years been the highest on record and despite spending billions on supply interdiction it has had no impact. We must reorient our policies towards public health approaches and reduce the barriers to accessing support by ending the criminalisation of people who use drugs.  

The UK’s focus on punishing drug use prevents drug services offering harm reduction specific interventions for people who use cocaine, including crack cocaine, meaning there is literally nothing practical on offer for people who use these substances. We must urgently reform our paraphernalia laws to allow the supply of drug using equipment to people using stimulants.  

And whilst opioid deaths may have fallen slightly, this is just one year’s set of figures and deaths related to heroin and morphine are more than double what they were 15 years ago.  

Andy Burham recently dismissed calls by the SNP to decriminalise people who use drugs on the basis he did not want to send the wrong message to young people. Yet countries across the world (like Portugal, Spain and Czechia) that ended criminal sanctions for drug use have a fraction of our drug deaths and harms. They have decades of evidence that decriminalisation unlocks health resources and reduces drug related health and social harms, whilst not experiencing increases in drug consumption.  

The government must act now to reverse this deadly trend — continuing with policies that have failed for decades will only cost more lives. 

The following quote/s can be attributed to Niamh Eastwood, Executive Director of Release, the UK’s national centre of expertise on drugs and drug laws:  

• “The increase in cocaine deaths is a direct result of policy failures both in the UK and internationally. Cocaine production is at an all-time high; it’s more available, cheaper and purer than ever, despite billions spent on trying to disrupt or eradicate the trade. The UK Government must allow for harm reduction initiatives that are currently blocked by the law to enable services to reach people: this includes reforming legislation to allow for the supply of harm reduction equipment and ending the criminalisation of people who use drugs to reduce barriers to support”.  

• “It is heartbreaking to once again to see the increased numbers of people dying of drug related causes. Criminalisation of people who use drugs is a policy failure, which as these figures show, has deadly consequences. Andy Burnham has said that he will not consider reform as he does not want to send the wrong message to young people, yet the reality is that for those young people, and for anyone using drugs, the risk of punishment means they aren’t seeking emergency help or support when they need it.”   

• “Despite spending billions on drug law enforcement, with record seizures and arrests regularly reported, it is today’s figures that really matter. Our failed approach to drugs has created more harm, with drugs such as cocaine more available, cheaper and purer than ever. This is a public health emergency that is driving down life expectancy and disproportionately impacting our most deprived communities. It demands a national response. We urgently need to scale up harm reduction, including allowing drug consumption rooms, and end the criminalisation of people who use drugs if we are to remove the barriers that are literally killing people.” 

About Release:  

Release is the UK’s centre of expertise on drugs and drug laws. We provide legal support, representation and drugs advice to people with a history of drug use or who are impacted by drug laws. We also campaign for evidence-based drug policies founded on principles of public health and human rights, seeking to reduce the harms faced by people who use drugs. For more about our work, please visit our website. 

For media enquiries please contact Niamh Eastwood, 07900002632 or niamh@release.org,.uk