The grim toll of our addictions
When it comes to the damage done by cigarettes, alcohol and drugs it seems some of the population of Wearside is unshockable.
With grim regularity, reports are launched highlighting the area as a blackspot when it comes to alcohol and tobacco-related deaths.
More bad news was served up today with a report highlighting the city’s drugdeath toll.
Figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveal that one person a fortnight is dying in Sunderland due to drug misuse.
The ONS reveals that there were 52 deaths in the city between 2014 and 2016.Of the 52 who died due to drug misuse, 43 were men and nine were women.
The region was bottom of the national table, with the North East showing the highest mortality rate, with 77.4 deaths per million population, a 13% increase from 2015, compared to 42.9 deaths per million population in England. That is obviously way above average.
So another sad set of figures – 26 lives a year lost to an addiction. And they are not all young lives.
Coun Izzi Seccombe, chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, said: “The biggest challenge we all face is an ageing cohort of drug users, who have not previously sought or had any treatment. As a result, they are prone to an accumulation of chronic physical and mental health conditions that make them more susceptible to dying through overdose.”
So drug addiction, once the province of young people is now straddling all ages.
In the last year 165 people in the city have so far successfully completed treatment for substance addiction – with another 1,000 receiving ongoing support.
Addiction of all forms is obviously sad and a huge problem, but it seems the burden it is putting on our health service is becoming intolerable.