Drug-related deaths in Scotland in 2009

Table Y Drug-related deaths, on the basis of the ONS "wide" definition, by selected drugs reported, 2000 - 2009

Drugs ^{1, 2}	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008 rev.	2009
All drug-related deaths (on the "wide" definition)	495	551	566	493	546	480	577	630	737	716
Amphetamines	3	5	13	10	10	11	11	12	12	7
Anti-depressants ³	78	93	82	83	86	67	93	84	101	97
Anti-psychotics ⁴	12	10	8	8	11	5	21	26	25	19
Benzodiazepines ⁵	165	185	248	189	140	110	94	109	150	158
Cannabis	24	23	35	21	5	6	3	8	1	0
Cocaine	4	20	31	30	38	44	33	47	41	33
Diazepam	147	159	217	154	113	90	78	79	116	120
Ecstasy-type	12	21	20	15	17	10	12	12	5	2
Heroin/diamorphine or Morphine ⁶	218	221	250	176	226	194	260	291	327	326
Methadone	56	71	100	91	80	71	96	115	171	177
Paracetamol or a compound ⁷	120	127	117	85	107	62	53	56	55	43
Temazepam	39	20	16	37	5	7	9	4	7	9
Tramadol	1	8	6	15	11	16	17	26	32	40
Alcohol	164	186	190	168	145	134	151	181	196	187

1. More than one drug may be reported per death. These are mentions of each drug, so do not add up to the overall total.
Up to 2007, some pathologists reported only those drugs which they thought caused, or contributed to, the death.
With effect from 2008, pathologists report separately:
(a) drugs which were implicated in, or which potentially contributed to, the cause of death; and
(b) other drugs which were present but which were not considered to have had any direct contribution to the death
The figures for 2008 onwards are on the first basis - i.e. basis (a) - which is now the standard basis for GROS's figures for individual drugs. The figures for 2008 have been revised from those published in the previous edition.
There may be other differences between years and/or areas in the way in which the information was produced - see Section 2.

2. The figures for some of the "controlled" drugs may differ slightly from those given in earlier tables for two reasons.
First, they were produced from GROS's new database, rather than the old database (see paragraph A4).
Second, a small proportion of the deaths which involved controlled drugs were excluded from the figures which appear in the earlier tables, for reasons such as those given in paragraph A3.

3. e.g. amitriptyline, citalopram, dothiepin, fluoexetine, prothaiaden

4. e.g. chlorpromazine, clozapine, olanzapine

5. including diazepam and temazepam (which appear separately below)

6. see paragraph 3.3.1 of commentary.

7. e.g. co-codamol or co-proxamol, or mention of dextropropoxyphene or propoxyphene (even if there is no mention of paracetamol or a compound analgesic)

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