Cannabis, cocaine and prescription pills most commonly used drugs by problem users in Western Trust

A new ‘Statistics from the Northern Ireland Substance Misuse Database: 2021/22 (Experimental Statistics)’ report summarises information on people presenting to services with problem drug and/or alcohol misuse for the year to March 31, 2022.

It shows that 531 people (27.2 per cent of 3,092 people across the north) were recorded as requiring services in the Western Trust.

The most commonly used drugs by these patients were as follows:

1. Cannabis: 75 per cent.

2. Cocaine: 52.9 per cent.

3. Benzodiazepines: 23.9 per cent.

4. Ecstasy: 14.7 per cent.

5. Pregabalin: 14.1 per cent.

The report shows that 5.5 per cent of these service users had reported injecting drugs at one point in their lives.

The data show a significant number of services users reported the misuse of pharmaceutical drugs.

In total 38 per cent of services users reported prescription drugs as their number one drug: for 23.9 per cent it was benzodiazepines, such as diazepam, a drug normally prescribed for anxiety and insomnia; for 14.1 per cent it was pregabalin, a drug normally prescribed for anxiety, epilepsy and pain.

Across the north a broadly similar pattern was reported.

“The drugs most commonly reported by those presenting to treatment for drug misuse were Cannabis (62 per cent of clients); Cocaine 1 (49.4 per cent of clients), Benzodiazepines (23.9 per cent of clients); Pregabalin/ Lyrica (16.7 per cent of clients); Ecstasy (9.4 per cent of clients); and Heroin (8.6 per cent of clients),” the report states.

The presence of heroin in the most commonly used drug list was due to the relatively high use of the substance in the Belfast Trust, the only district where it appeared in the top five list of most commonly used drugs.

In the Belfast Trust area, the report shows, 18.7 per cent of 578 services users said heroin was the drug they used most commonly and 19.6 per cent of clients said they had injected drugs at some point in their lives.

176 people caught driving under influence of drink and drugs already this Christmas