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Cocaine tops heroin in England and Wales drug-poisoning deaths
The ONS said cocaine was mentioned in 1,233 drug-poisoning deaths registered in England and Wales in 2025, edging past heroin or morphine for the first time since 1993.
- New headline Was: “Cocaine overtakes heroin as leading cause of drug deaths in England and Wales”
- Our desk filed its story
Cocaine was the most frequently mentioned specific substance in drug-poisoning deaths registered in England and Wales in 2025, overtaking heroin or morphine for the first time in a series that began in 1993, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday2.
The ONS counted 1,233 deaths involving cocaine, or 20.7 per million people, down from 1,279 in 2024 but more than eight times the 144 cocaine-involved deaths registered in 20102. Heroin or morphine was mentioned in 1,210 deaths2.
Opiates and opioids as a group remained the most common substance class, mentioned in 2,324 deaths (42.1% of drug-poisoning deaths), down from 2,621 in 20242. The Guardian reported 5,519 drug-poisoning deaths registered in 2025, 46 fewer than in 20241.
The bulletin is based mainly on the year a death was registered, not when it occurred; the ONS said 62.7% of drug-poisoning deaths registered in 2025 occurred in earlier years because of inquest delays2.
The ONS said the North East had the highest regional drug-poisoning rate and London the lowest2. The Guardian reported cocaine accounted for 22% of the drug-related deaths it cited, including powder, injected cocaine and crack, that 64% of cocaine deaths were in people over 40, and that deaths were five times higher in the most deprived areas than the least1.
Harm-reduction and treatment groups quoted by The Guardian said the cocaine pattern reflected cheaper, more available supply and called for a new drugs strategy and restored treatment funding; those comments were not in the ONS release1.
The ONS cautioned that certificates do not always name every drug and that it does not see post-mortem or toxicology files, so some records list only general terms such as overdose or multiple drug toxicity2.
Not medical advice.
