Ireland is the worst EU country for drug deaths, suffering four times the average fatality rate
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Ireland topped the EU table for drug deaths with more than four times the average number of fatalities, according to a new report by the EU drugs agency.
The European Drug Report 2024 shows that Ireland had 322 drug-induced deaths in 2020 — 97 deaths per million people, compared to the EU average of 22.5.
Ireland was ahead of Baltic and Nordic states, which, along with Ireland, traditionally have the highest rates. Estonia is in second place (95), followed by Norway (86).
Western European countries had far lower drug death rates than Ireland, including Germany (30), the Netherlands (26), Belgium (21), and Portugal (11).
The report, published by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), also warns:
- A scarcity of heroin — expected later this year or early next year — is likely to be filled by far more powerful synthetic opioids such as nitazene which caused clusters of overdoses in Dublin and Cork late last year;
- There have been record seizures of cocaine in the EU for the sixth year in a row, with 323 tonnes confiscated in 2022, compared to 303 tonnes in 2021;
- There are growing concerns at the increasing strength of cannabis resin, the high-potency of cannabis extracts and edibles, including jellies, and the dangers posed by synthetic cannabinoids, the latter resulting in poisonings of children, including in Ireland.
In its country report to the EMCDDA, Ireland’s Health Research Board said the number of drug poisoning deaths in Ireland had increased from 258 in 2017 to 322 by 2020, with a growing trend of deaths among older users and among females.
It said opioids, namely methadone (street or prescribed) and/or heroin, were involved in 87% of deaths. However, it said there has been a “significant increase” in deaths where cocaine was implicated (on its own or with other drugs), rising from 26 deaths in 2012 to 130 in 2020.
The HRB said that this corresponds with far more problem cocaine use in treatment services, accounting for a third of cases in 2022.
The drug deaths published by the EMCDDA exclude deaths involving prescription drugs, which would bring Ireland’s total to 409 in 2020. They also exclude non-poisoning deaths, such as suicides or cardiac arrests, which accounted for 397 additional fatalities in Ireland in 2020.
Tony Duffin of Ana Liffey Drug Project said the figures highlight the urgent need to expand the availability of naloxone (an antidote for opioid overdoses), implement plans for supervised injecting facilities, and extend drug checking services.
Launching the report, European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson expressed concern at the consumption of “potentially deadly cocktails” of drugs, adding that people “have no idea what they are taking”.
She issued a warning about greater supplies of synthetic opioids, saying nitazenes are “highly potent and extremely deadly”.
Ms Johansson said the drug trade is “fuelling violence and corruption” and that gang traffickers are targeting smaller ports across Europe — moving from “port to port” to avoid greater detection measures at the main ports.
Asked by the Irish Examiner if this means Irish ports could be targeted further, EMCDDA director Alexis Goosdeel said this tactic of traffickers is increasing and “potentially it touches all countries and all ports”.
He said a “heroin drought” could happen as soon as a “few months” and that synthetic opioids are “easy to produce and more dangerous”.