Over 4,500 have mental health issues due to drugs
NORTH EAST HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS SOAR SINCE LAST YEAR
THE damage drug use can cause to mental health has been revealed by NHS figures showing it contributed to 4,644 hospital admissions in the North East in just one year.
This is the number of people treated in hospital who were diagnosed as having a mental health problem or behavioural disorder related to drug use.
The NHS data shows that 3,260 men and 1,384 women received treatment.
And the highest number of admissions was in the County Durham area, where 727 people received treatment. There were 527 admissions in Middlesbrough, 445 in Sunderland and 424 in Stockton-on-Tees.
The figures include patients where drug use was either the primary problem or a contributory factor to their illness. The number has risen from 3,782 cases the year previously.
It comes after the Government on Friday announced plans for a major crackdown on the illicit drugs trade, including so-called ‘chemsex’ drugs which are used before or during sex.
These include substances such as crystal methamphetamine, GHB/ GBL and mephedrone.
But some critics say the Government’s approach is doomed to failure, because it simply treats drug use as a crime rather than a health issue.
Liberal Democrat health spokesman, Norman Lamb, said: “The drugs strategy won’t work.
“It totally fails to address a key problem: treating drug dependence as a criminal justice issue rather than a health one.”
Figures show that drug misuse has been falling. The Home Office estimates that 8% of people aged 16 to 59 in England and Wales took illegal drugs in 2015/16, around 2.7 million people, down from 10.5% a decade ago.
However, the Home Office says new threats are emerging, such as chemsex drugs and drugs designed in laboratories known as new psychoactive substances.
Some of these were previously sold openly in high streets and were known as legal highs with names such as Spice, but the trade has been driven underground after they were banned in May 2016.
The Home Office survey found that 7.1% of people in the North East, one in 14 people, said they had taken an illegal drug at least once over the past year. This is slightly below the national figure.
The region with the most drug use was the South West, where more than NORMAN LAMB