Table Z: Drug-related deaths on the basis of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) 'wide' definition, by how they relate to the Drug Strategy 'baseline' definition, deaths from some causes which may be associated with past or present drug misuse, and volatile substance abuse deaths, 2003 to 2013
Cause of death
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
Footnotes:
Paragraph A3 in Annex A explains why these kinds of deaths are excluded from the standard definition of 'drug-related death' figures produced by NRS.
Including (e.g.) deaths caused by infections that resulted from the use of heroin which was contaminated by, say, anthrax.
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).
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.
'ICD10' is the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision.
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.
All drug-related deaths (on the 'wide' definition)
493
546
480
577
630
737
716
692
749
734
685
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))
317
356
336
421
455
574
545
485
584
581
526
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
6
12
13
10
23
22
33
16
14
22
(b) controlled substance was present only as part of a compound analgesic or a cold remedy
0
0
1
2
8
10
3
5
4
1
4
other deaths counted as 'drug-related' by the 'wide' definition - but not on the basis used for this report3
167
184
131
141
157
130
146
169
145
138
133
Deaths from some causes which may be associated with present or past drug misuse4
Underlying cause of death, with its ICD105 code(s):
Hepatitis C (B18.2)
5
5
10
14
12
18
21
19
25
22
23
HIV (B20-24)
33
16
31
19
21
18
17
21
16
18
14
Total all deaths from the specified causes
38
21
41
33
33
36
38
40
41
40
37
Volatile Substance Abuse deaths
Deaths in Scotland - International Centre for Drugs Policy (ICDP) figures6