Drug induced deaths in prisons

Problematic drug use and drug-induced deaths are increasingly viewed in many countries as major societal challenges. Globally, the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime has registered increases in the supply, use and harms of drugs over the 20th and 21st centuries. Their 2024 report noted that cocaine production has reached record highs; drug use and markets have expanded in Europe, Africa and Asia; and synthetic drugs are inflicting harm, especially methamphetamines in Asia, the Middle East and parts of Europe, and fentanyl in North America. The report confirmed that poverty and insecurity lie at the root of illicit crop cultivation, and that traffickers are constantly producing new psychoactive substances that pose a serious threat to public health. 1,209 new psychoactive substances have been identified since 1995, four times more than the number under international control. Nitazenes (synthetic opioids which can be more potent than fentanyl) present a new challenge.

The available evidence from international multidisciplinary research about the supply, use and harms of drugs in prisons raises important questions about the relationship between patterns of drug use in people who cycle through prison, the health and social implications of this drug use, and the prison environment. Researchers and policymakers ask:

What are the problems underlying the use of drugs and drug-induced deaths in prisons?
What policies and programmes would be most effective in responding to these complex issues?
What lessons can policymakers draw from international experience for policy learning and transfer?