Drug deaths rise

A new plan on how to tackle all aspects of illegal drug use in the county is being drawn up

By Sarah Ward

Photo by Colin Davis on Unsplash

There have been more than 130 drug related deaths in the county in the last three years.

Drug related deaths are on the increase according to a new public health report, which has found that deaths are more prevalent in the towns of Corby, Kettering and Northampton.

According to the report just over 70 per cent of the drug deaths recorded between 2019 and 2022 were of men with the average age at death being 44.

The county’s new combating drugs partnership, a collaboration between local councils, health, police and probation, has been set up to both reduce the prevalence of drug use and the health and public harms it can cause.

The partnership’s creation has been ordered by central government as part of its ten-year drug strategy from Harm to Hope launched last year. This came after a damning report by Dame Carol Black into the country’s illegal drugs trade which found that failures in treatment and policing were leading to a ‘boom in illegal dr…