Drug death

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The drug-related death or Rauschgifttod called death by the consumption of illegal drugs .

Victims of legal drugs (e.g. tobacco , alcohol, and medication) are not considered drug deaths. For comparison: there were around 1,000 drug deaths in Germany in 2011, over 70,000 as a result of alcohol abuse and over 110,000 deaths as a result of tobacco smoking .

Situation in Germany

In Germany, a person who fulfills one of four criteria of an internal police regulation ( PDV 386) from 1979 is statistically recorded as a drug death :

“There is therefore a duty to report deaths that are causally related to the improper use of narcotics and alternative drugs. Fall under

  1. Deaths as a result of intentional or unintentional overdose (organ failure due to acute poisoning),
  2. Deaths as a result of long-term abuse (long-term damage, drug-toxic damage from substances consumed, reduced physical defenses, damage from diluents, diseases and infections from IV application, hepatitis C , HIV ),
  3. Suicide out of desperation about the living conditions or under the influence of withdrawal symptoms (except through overdoses) and
  4. fatal accidents of people under the influence of drugs (especially in traffic). "
- Police Regulations 386

Problems arise when recording the data, since the processing of drug death reports is the responsibility of the police and not that of the state statistical offices, which otherwise deal with all causes of death.

In an international context, the figures are not comparable, since almost all other European countries choose a specific, medical term instead of the social drug death term used here and record this using international coding procedures ( ICD-10 ).

Over 80% of the deaths in Germany are male.

Number of drug deaths in Germany
1973–1990 old federal states, 1991 old states including all of Berlin
All of Germany from 1992

Situation in the European Union

In 2000 there were 8,838 drug deaths across the European Union . With a population of around 500 million people, that is around 2 drug deaths per 100,000 inhabitants and year, or 0.002 percent.

Situation in the USA

In 2000 there were approximately 17,000 drug deaths in the United States .

As a result of the “drug crisis” across the country, there was a sharp increase in drug deaths to 47,000 in 2014. In some states, the drug crisis was described by the population as the current biggest problem. The main cause is believed to be a surge in addiction to prescription pain killers and heroin in parts of the population. Based on the total population, around 15 people per 100,000 inhabitants per year or 0.015 percent died in 2014 as a result of drug abuse.

In 2015, the number of drug deaths in the United States rose further to 52,000, of which 33,000 died from opioids. The number of victims concentrated in certain population groups. In the state of West Virginia , an average of just over 3 in 100 deaths in 2015 were due to drug overdose, but in a high-risk population, white men aged 15 to 34, the rate was 28 in 100 deaths.

In 2016, the number of drug deaths in the US reached a new high of around 59,000. According to press research, the increasing spread of illegally manufactured fentanyl preparations among drug addicts, including carfentanyl , which is considered to be particularly dangerous, would have aggravated the situation .

The increase in deaths from intoxicating drugs continued in 2017. About 72,000 people died from drugs, including about 30,000 from opioids. This corresponds to about 22 people per 100,000 inhabitants.

Situation in Russia

In December 2010, the head of Russia's National Drug Control Agency , Viktor Ivanov, announced the number of 100,000 drug deaths for 2010. He spoke of an "apocalyptic dimension". He put the number of drug addicts at five million. In relation to the total population of around 140 million, this corresponds to 70 drug deaths per 100,000 inhabitants or 0.07 percent.

See also

swell

Drugs and addiction report 2014 of the drug commissioner of the federal government

  1. ↑ Drugs and Addiction Report 2012 ( Memento of the original from May 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 2.5 MB) of the drug commissioner of the federal government @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.drogenbeauftragte.de
  2. ↑ Kraus, Ludwig: Epidemiological Aspects of Drug Death , In: Prevention of drug-related emergencies and deaths , Klaus Püschel (Ed.), Lambertus 2002, ISBN 3-7841-1382-6
  3. ↑ Number of drug deaths / drug situation in 2012. (PDF; 118 kB) (No longer available online.) Drug Commissioner of the Federal Government, Federal Criminal Police Office , April 25, 2013, archived from the original on May 12, 2013 ; Retrieved April 29, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / drogenbeauftragte.de
  4. ↑ according to the data of the Federal Criminal Police Office
  5. ↑ James Arkin: Senate Passes Bill Addressing Heroin, Opioid Crisis Published March 10, 2016 in RealClearPolitics , accessed April 29, 2016
  6. ↑ Haeyoun Park and Matthew Bloch: "How the Epidemic of Drug Overdose Deaths Ripples Across America" New York Times of January 19, 2016
  7. ↑ Shefali Luthra, "The $ 4,500 injection to stop heroin overdoses," Washington Post, Jan. 27, 2017
  8. ↑ America's opioid epidemic is worsening. Retrieved March 6, 2017 .
  9. ↑ Christopher Ingraham: "Drugs are killing so many people in West Virginia that the state can't keep up with the funerals" Washington Post, March 7, 2017
  10. ↑ Jos Katz: "Drug Deaths in America Are Rising Faster Than Ever" New York Times of June 5, 2017
  11. ↑ Angry Poison , article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, August 20, 2018, accessed August 31, 2018
  12. ^ Authority: 100,000 drug deaths in Russia Ärzte Zeitung online from December 21, 2010

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