Councils warn of rise in synthetic opioid use

Responding to new statistics on drug misuse from the Office for National Statistics, Cllr David Fothergill, Chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board said:

“Although it is encouraging that rates of drug misuse have remained stable, this is masking worrying new trends in drug use.

“We are particularly concerned to see a rise in the use of new synthetic opioids and benzodiazepines which substantially raise the risk of incredibly serious harm to the user and are believed to be linked to a number of drug related deaths.

“Councils want to see greater regulation of the sale of substances online that often enter the UK in the post and increased surveillance to alert authorities to the types of drugs people are taking.”

Notes to editors

Data from the ONS has shown, despite a fall in a number of types of drugs used overall, that the use of ketamine and new psychoactive substances has increased between 2020 and 2023.