| Cause of death | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All drug-related deaths (on the 'wide' definition) | 551 | 566 | 493 | 546 | 480 | 577 | 630 | 737 | 716 | 692 | 749 | ||
| of which: | |||||||||||||
| on the basis used for this report's statistics (i.e. the Drug Strategy 'baseline' definition, as implemented by National Records of Scotland (NRS)) | 332 | 382 | 317 | 356 | 336 | 421 | 455 | 574 | 545 | 485 | 584 | ||
| deaths within the Drug Strategy 'baseline' definition, but excluded from this report's statistics because:1 | |||||||||||||
| (a) cause of death was a secondary infection or a related complication2 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 6 | 12 | 13 | 10 | 23 | 22 | 33 | 16 | ||
| (b) controlled substance was present only as part of a compound analgesic or a cold remedy | 4 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 10 | 3 | 5 | 4 | ||
| other deaths counted as 'drug-related' by the 'wide' definition - but not on the basis used for this report3 | 206 | 168 | 167 | 184 | 131 | 141 | 157 | 130 | 146 | 169 | 145 | ||
| Deaths from some causes which may be associated with present or past drug misuse4 | |||||||||||||
| Underlying cause of death, with its ICD10 5 code(s): | |||||||||||||
| Hepatitis C | (B18.2) | 2 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 14 | 12 | 18 | 21 | 19 | 25 | |
| HIV | (B20-24) | 33 | 33 | 33 | 16 | 31 | 19 | 21 | 18 | 17 | 21 | 16 | |
| Total all deaths from the specified causes | 35 | 36 | 38 | 21 | 41 | 33 | 33 | 36 | 38 | 40 | 41 | ||
| Volatile Substance Abuse deaths | |||||||||||||
| Deaths in Scotland - International Centre for Drugs Policy (ICDP) figures6 | 9 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 10 | 3 | .. | .. | .. | ||
Footnotes
1) Paragraph A3 of Annex A explains why these kinds of deaths are excluded from the standard definition of 'drug-related death' figures produced by NRS.
2) Including (e.g.) deaths caused by infections that resulted from the use of heroin which was contaminated by, say, anthrax.
3) Including (e.g.) accidental deaths which were caused by the use of drugs which were not controlled at the time, such as those before 16 April 2010 which resulted from using mephedrone (assuming that no controlled drugs were found in the body).
4) Only a proportion of deaths from these causes can be attributed to drug misuse - more information can be found in paragraph B8 of Annex B.
5) 'ICD10' is the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision the figures that appeared in the previous edition for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) deaths in 2009 (27) and the total below it (48) were wrong: they have been corrected in this edition.
6) More information can be found in paragraph B13 of Annex B about the statistics that it produces. A few deaths per year may be counted both in the 'ICDP' figures and in the standard drug-related death statistics produced by NRS.