Alcohol and drug use

Deaths from drug overdose, alcohol and suicide rose steeply in the United States among middle-aged white adults from the late 1990s, enough to reverse the country's mortality improvement. American overdose deaths peaked around 2023 and have since fallen sharply, with the reasons argued over: fentanyl supply, naloxone, treatment, or the depletion of the population most at risk. Scotland's drug-death rates are several times England's and the highest in Europe. Alcohol deaths rose across the United Kingdom during and after the pandemic. In contrast, suicide trends are flat or falling in most countries and rising in a few. Drinking is falling among the young in most high-income countries, and rising or concentrating among the middle-aged. It is the second group that the deaths follow. Policy evidence is stronger here than in most behavioural fields: minimum unit pricing in Scotland reduced alcohol deaths in a measurable way.

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