Government of Jersey

Drug related deaths since 2019 (FOI)

Produced by the Freedom of Information office
Authored by Government of Jersey and published on 18 November 2024.
Prepared internally, no external costs.

Request

Can you tell me how many drug related deaths there have been in Jersey for the last 5 years, including 2019 and up to the figures for 2024 so far?

Can I have those numbers broken down into each year?

Can I also have a breakdown of how the underlying causes of these deaths in this five year period have been classified in terms of drug type.

Response

Data in this response covers the period between 2019 and 2022. The cause of death information for deaths occurring in the years 2023 and 2024 is not yet available, so information on drug-related deaths for this period are not included in this response. Therefore Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

Cause of Death Classifications (ICD-10 Codes):

The following causes of death and their corresponding ICD-10 codes are those defined as being related to drug poisoning:

Cause of death	ICD-10 Codes
Mental and behavioural disorders due to drug use (excluding alcohol and tobacco)	F11–F16, F18–F19
Accidental poisoning by drugs, medicaments and biological substances	X40–X44
Intentional self-poisoning by drugs, medicaments and biological substances	X60–X64
Assault by drugs, medicaments and biological substances	X85
Poisoning by drugs, medicaments and biological substances, undetermined intent	Y10–Y14

Where numbers are fewer than five, disclosure control is applied to avoid identification of

individuals. Article 25 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

The total number of drug-related deaths in Jersey during the period 2019-2022 (rounded to the nearest 5) was 20

A breakdown of deaths (rounded to the nearest five) attributed to specific drug types under accidental poisoning (X40–X44) and intentional self-poisoning (X60–X64) for the period 2019-2022 is provided below:

Year	Drug-related deaths
2019	5
2020	10
2021	<5
2022	5

Between 2019 and 2022, fewer than five deaths were recorded in drug-related cause-of-death categories other than 'Accidental poisoning' (X40–X44) and 'Intentional self-poisoning' (X60–X64).

As a result, a detailed breakdown of drug types associated with these deaths cannot be provided to avoid identification of individuals. However, by combining accidental poisoning and intentional self-poisoning deaths, we can provide a breakdown (rounded to the nearest five) of deaths attributed to each drug type specified in the ICD-10 codes:

Cause of death	ICD-10 Codes	Total deaths (2019-2022)
Accidental poisoning OR intentional self-poisoning by and exposure to nonopioid analgesics, antipyretics and antirheumatics	X40/X60	<5
Accidental poisoning OR intentional self-poisoning by and exposure to antiepileptic, sedative-hypnotic, antiparkinsonism and psychotropic drugs, not elsewhere classified	X41/X61	5
Accidental poisoning OR intentional self-poisoning by and exposure to narcotics and psychodysleptics [hallucinogens], not elsewhere classified	X42/X62	5
Accidental poisoning OR intentional self-poisoning by and exposure to other drugs acting on the autonomic nervous system	X43/X63	<5
Accidental poisoning OR intentional self-poisoning by and exposure to other and unspecified drugs, medicaments and biological substances	X44/X64	5

Articles Applied

Article 3 - Meaning of “information held by a public authority”

For the purposes of this Law, information is held by a public authority if –

(a) it is held by the authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person; or

(b) it is held by another person on behalf of the authority.

Article 25 - Personal information

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018.

(2) Information is absolutely exempt information if –

(a) it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018; and

(b) its supply to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles, as defined in that Law.

3) In determining for the purposes of this Article whether the lawfulness principle in Article 8(1)(a) of the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018 would be contravened by the disclosure of information, paragraph 5(1) of Schedule 2 to that Law (legitimate interests) is to be read as if sub-paragraph (b) (which disapplies the provision where the controller is a public authority) were omitted.