Drug overdose kills over 3,700 people in Ireland in decade: report

A total of 3,715 people in Ireland were killed because of drug overdose in the ten-year period from 2008 to 2017, according to the latest statistics released here on Thursday.

The statistics contained in a report compiled by the Health Research Board (HRB), an Irish state agency responsible for medical research for public health purpose, showed that in 2017 alone excessive use of drugs claimed 376 lives in Ireland, the highest figure ever recorded since 2013 when the number of such deaths in the country reached a peak of 401 in the past decade or so.

Of all the deaths resulting from overuse of drugs in 2017, men accounted for nearly 70 percent with women making up for the remaining 30 percent, said the HRB, adding that the median age for those who died of excessive use of drugs in 2017 was 43 years, five years more than the median age of 38 years recorded in 2008.

The 2017 statistics of the HRB also showed that prescribed drugs were implicated in the majority of such deaths in the country and the number of such deaths where illicit drugs were implicated also saw a rising trend.

In 2017 a total of 95 people were killed because of overuse of methadone, making it the most common individual prescribed drug implicated in such deaths in the country, said the HRB.

According to the HRB, a total of 77 people died of overuse of heroin in 2017, up 4 percent compared with the 2016 figure, 53 people died of cocaine overdose , up 26 percent over a year ago, and 14 people died after excessive take of MDMA, a drug also known as ecstasy, up 75 percent year-on-year.