Resort highlighted for high level of deaths linked to use of heroin and morphine

SCARBOROUGH HAS been shamed as a heroin and morphine death “hotspot”.

New figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show 4.6 deaths per 100,000 people were due to heroin or morphine misuse in 2016 – compared to an English average of 1.7.

More than half of the 10 towns and cities with the highest rates of deaths related to the substances are coastal resorts, said the ONS. While Scarborough sits just outside the top 10, at 14th, the borough shares characteristics with many of those with the highest levels, in particular, deprivation.

The ONS said higher levels of deprivation could be linked to increased drug use, which was also highlighted in a report by Public Health England last year which said “social factors, including housing, employment and deprivation, are associated with substance misuse and these social factors moderate drug treatment outcomes”.

North Yorkshire’s Director of Public Health, Dr Lincoln Sargeant, said around 3,000 people access treatment across the county a year, with Scarborough and Harrogate seeing the most cases. He said much of work done by recovery service North Yorkshire Horizons at rehabilitating drug users also addressed causes related to social factors.

“When somebody accesses treatment we have a system that helps support that person back into work and sort out their housing so the factors that helped them to spiral into substance misuse are also tackled.”

The service will shortly begin to provide users with Naloxone, a medication which blocks the effects of opioids in an overdose situation. Health services across the area also have an “alert protocol” to warn drug users, if, for example, a contaminated batch of drugs enters the market.

Elsewhere, other areas with death rates above average are Doncaster with 3.3 deaths per 100,000; York and Hull, both with 3.2; Leeds with 2.7; Sheffield and Bradford with 2.5; Wakefield with 2.2; and Barnsley with 1.9.