The UK has one of the world’s fastest- growing rates of opioid use, according to an official report that says the crisis has spread beyond America.
Concern until now has largely focused on the US, where super-strength painkillers have caused the deaths of more than 91,000 people in the past two years.
However, a review by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) concludes that the problem is no longer confined to America.
It studied drug availability and deaths in 25 member countries with data. The UK had the world’s third-fastest-growing rate of opioid use. Only in Israel and Colombia was the increase quicker.
Opioid availability was defined as legal prescriptions, over-the-counter sales and treatments used in research, though most of the drugs come