An article published in The Guardian reports that the government has missed its target on cutting deaths from drug abuse. The UK apparently has the highest number of drug users of any country in Europe and according to figures published this week, there has been a big surge in the numbers of predominantly young people who have died since 2003 from drug abuse.

In 2002, the government’s aim was to reduce drug-related deaths by 20% between 1999 and 2004. The Office for National Statistics figures show that deaths did come down, but by only 9% overall, following a rise in 2003. The ONS figures also showed that drug misuse was the third most common cause of death among young people after traffic accidents and suicide.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 1st, 2006 at 4:49 pm and is filed under Drugs/medication, Government. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.