Estonia has the highest percentage of deaths in Europe the primary cause of which is a narcotic substance and the ratio of such deaths in Estonia is almost double the figure for the country in second place, Norway, it appears from the European Drug Report 2013.
The report published by the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) shows that the number of deaths caused by the use of narcotics was 123 in Estonia in 2011, 135.7 per million inhabitants.
«A total of 123 cases of direct drug-related deaths were recorded in 2011, fewer than in 2009 when 133 cases were recorded, but still exceeding the levels in previous years: 101 in 2010, 67 in 2008, 68 in 2006, 57 in 2005 and 98 in 2004. Opioids, 3-methylfentanyl in particular, were present in 95.9 percent of all deaths with known toxicological results, and in many instances other psychoactive substances were also present. With regards to the distribution of drug-related deaths by age and gender, the majority were men, accounting for 87.8 percent of all cases, and the deceased were on average 30.1 years old at the time of death,» the report reads.
In second place was Norway with 238 deaths attributable to the use of narcotics, corresponding to a ratio of 73.1 per million residents.
Finland was in third place with 189 deaths or 53.3 per million inhabitants, the UK in fourth place with 2,153 deaths or 52.3 per million and Ireland in fifth place with 159 deaths or 51.8 per million. The rest of the countries covered by the survey had fewer than 50 drug deaths per million residents.
Latvia saw 11 drug deaths in 2011 according to EMCDDA, 7.9 per million inhabitants, whereas in Lithuania 43 people died as a result of narcotics, a ratio of 20.9 deaths per million inhabitants.
The lowest ratio was reported in Romania, where the authorities recorded 15 deaths as a result of narcotics in 2011, one per million of population.
In Turkey the number of such deaths was 93, 1.9 per million inhabitants, and in Hungary 14, two per million inhabitants.
The EMCDDA report listed 30 countries of Europe.