In Germany, 1990 people died as a result of drug use in the past year. That was 164 more than the year before. The number of drug-related deaths has risen for the fifth year in a row – by nine percent compared to 2021. This was announced by the federal government’s drug commissioner, Burkhard Blienert.
The SPD politician called the balance sheet on Thursday in Berlin “shocking and alarming”. He called for more low-threshold help. Since heroin and long-term effects are the main causes of deaths from drug use, rapid treatment of the addiction is key.
749 people died as a result of consuming heroin and morphine. Opioids have a pain-relieving, euphoric and calming effect. In addition to a possible fatal overdose, heroin is particularly dangerous because it is highly addictive. In addition, infectious diseases such as hepatitis and HIV can potentially be transmitted during intravenous drug use.
It is mostly men
The proportion of opiates and opioids has continued to increase in recent years. Most cases of drug deaths – more than a third – are due to poisoning with these substances. There was also a significant increase in drug-related deaths due to intoxication from several substances such as cocaine and crack, amphetamines or psychoactive drugs.
According to the information, most of the drug-related deaths were men: 1,648 men and 342 women died as a result of the use of intoxicants. The average age of the fatalities was 40.6 years.
According to statistics, as in previous years, the most drug-related deaths were in North Rhine-Westphalia (703), Bavaria (277) and Berlin (230). While the number of drug-related deaths in Lower Saxony and Saarland has recently increased, it has fallen significantly in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. According to Blienert, the number of drug-related deaths has more than doubled since 2012, when 944 drug-related deaths were recorded. At the same time, reference was made to different recording systems in the federal states, which makes a comparison difficult.