Heroin deaths on British streets surged as troops withdrew from Afghanistan, figures show

Official figures show record drugs deaths - including two thirds increase in heroin fatalities - in the year British troops pulled out of Afghanistan

Drug deaths soared to a record level after an influx of cheaper and more potent heroin onto British streets - boosted by bumper poppy crops from Afghanistan as UK troops left country.

Official figures showed that the number of people who died in England and Wales after taking heroin has surged by two thirds in the last two years while the total number of deaths from drug poisoning hit the highest level since records began in the early 1990s.

Overall 3,346 deaths registered last year were attributed to drug poisoning of which just over two thirds (2,2,48) were the recognised as being the result of the misuse of illegal drugs, according to the Office for National Statistics.

But while drug deaths were up by 29 per cent overall in the last two years, those involving heroin or morphine leapt by 64 per cent in that time (from 579 to 952). The ONS said the surge in the last two years marked the end of what had been nicknamed a “heroin drought” in the UK.

It pointed to a link to record global cultivation of opium poppies, from which heroin is derived – the vast majority of which come from Afghanistan, according to UN reports.

The ONS added that sharp falls in the street price of heroin and a marked increase in purity in recent years were also likely to have played a part in the rise in fatalities. - Read More

Heroin deaths on British streets surged as troops withdrew from Afghanistan, figures show