Published 2 February 2024 at 15.28
Domestic. In 2022, the number of deaths caused by drug poisoning increased for the first time in four years. Accidental overdoses were the most common cause of death, and opioids were involved in 86 percent of cases where the substance could be identified.
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The Public Health Agency's new report shows that the in 2022 there were a total of 519 deaths, which is 69 more than in 2021.
It was drug-related suicides and deaths with unclear intent that accounted for the increase – an increase that largely only occurred among men.
Accidental overdoses were the most common cause of death, and opioids were involved in 86 percent of all cases where the substance could be identified. Cases where the cause of death is poisoning due to the use of illegal drugs or drug-classified drugs are counted as drug-related.
– That the number of deaths increased after several years of reduction is worrying. We do not know if it is a temporary increase and not what it may be due to, and it is important to follow the development and find out more. The increased number of deaths also shows the importance of continuing with – and further scaling up – the measures that we know are effective, such as drug-assisted treatment for opioid addiction and the drug naloxone, which reverses overdoses, says investigator Mimmi Eriksson Tinghög in a statement.
Cannabis was the most common type of drug in 2022, and 3.2 percent of the population aged 16–64 stated in the public health survey Health on equal terms that they had used cannabis in the past 12 months. The proportion has been roughly the same for the past 10 years. The most common use was among men aged 16–34, where the proportion was 8 percent.
During 2022, the Public Health Agency reported 25 new psychoactive substances to the EMCDDA's early warning system. One of the substances was hexahydrocannabinol (HHC). This new group of cannabinoids has become widespread in Sweden in recent years. In 2023, the authority proposed that the government should regulate 21 substances, of which 7 opioids, 7 cannabinoids, 1 cathinone and 6 other substances.