Drug death rates in the Isle of Man are higher than England, Health Minister Kate Beecroft has revealed.

Mrs Beecroft confirmed there had been 30 drug-related deaths from 2010-2015.

She added: ’Our drug-related mortality rate averaged over the years 2013-15 was 8.5 per 100,000 per annum.

’This is statistically significantly higher than the rate for England - 3.9 per 100,000 per annum - but statistically similar to North West England - 5.6 per 100,000 per annum - over the same time period.

’Other jurisdictions in the British Isles and Europe use a different mechanism to calculate their drug-related death indicators and so we cannot easily benchmark against them at the present time.’

In a written answer to a House of Keys question tabled by Dr Alex Allinson (Ramsey) Mrs Beecroft added: ’Fourteen out of the 23 deaths occurring in 2013-2015 were related to opioids.

’Concerns over the number of deaths from opioid overdose - believed to be linked, in part, to increasing purity of supply and something which has been observed elsewhere in the British Isles - led to the introduction of a home naloxone programme through the Drug and Alcohol Team last year.

’This provides training for users and their household members on the administration of naloxone, an antidote to opiates, and a supply of naloxone for them to keep with them for use if signs of an overdose are apparent.’

It was too early to say how effective this programme had been in reducing deaths.

She said the other main area of concern was the number of deaths relating to prescription drugs, which was being looked into.

A public health spokesman explained that smaller population areas were likely to see a greater variance in the death rate per 100,000. The level of expected variance in the Isle of Man ranged from 4.8 to 12.2 per 100,000.

The period from 2010-12, saw only seven drug-related deaths, compared with 23 in the next three years.