42% of adults in treatmentPeople reporting problems with opiates, mainly heroin; some also reported crack cocaine.
Population surveys and treatment statistics · four-nation context
Drug prevalence and use patterns
The latest CSEW shows past-year drug use in England and Wales, while OHID data show adult drug and alcohol treatment activity in England. Separate national-survey coverage is shown below.
Editorial review: 4 November 2026Any drug8.7%Around 2.9 million people
Any Class A3.3%Around 1.1 million people
Frequent use2.0%More than once a month
Cannabis daily10.4%Of past-year cannabis users
Ordered prevalence
Drug use in the previous year · age 16–59
England and Wales household survey, year ending March 2025 · 16–59 or 16–24 years
Ranked at 0.5% or aboveBelow 0.5%: small estimate, no rank◆ Grouped measure
Surveyed, but too sparse to rank here
Crack cocaine · Heroin · Methadone · Methamphetamine · Mephedrone · GHB. The 16–24 table records rounded zeroes for some of these drugs; these do not establish absence of use. General household surveys also under-represent some higher-risk populations.
Hallucinogens include LSD and magic mushrooms; NPS is a generic survey category. Categories and individual percentages overlap. “Tranquillisers” is the ONS table label and is not interchangeable with OHID benzodiazepine treatment data.
▦ ONS / CSEW appendix tables 1.02 and 1.08◷ Year ending March 2025Accredited official statisticsOpen source ↗
02
Adult treatment in England
Latest OHID service-contact data · 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025
Adults in treatment329,646Up 6% · highest since reporting began
Starting treatment169,542New treatment journeys during 2024–25
Treatment exits152,06746% completed treatment successfully
Timely access99%Started treatment within three weeks of referral
30% of adults in treatmentAlcohol problems recorded without another problem substance.
15% of adults in treatmentProblems involving both non-opiate drugs and alcohol.
13% of adults in treatmentProblems involving non-opiate drugs without alcohol.
Drug-specific treatment demand
High confidenceProblem substances reported when starting treatment
Adults starting a new treatment journey in England, 2024–25. One person can report up to three problem substances.
Treatment is not prevalence
These figures describe adults in contact with services in England. The four reporting groups are mutually exclusive and should not be used to estimate drug use in the wider population.
OHID report ↗03
Other substances under surveillance
Separate mortality, treatment and clinical signals where a reliable UK population estimate is unavailable
Gabapentin and pregabalin
High confidence330Scottish drug-use deaths
Gabapentin and/or pregabalin implicated in deaths registered in 2025; substances can co-occur.
Mortality involvement, not use prevalence.Nitazenes
High confidence247Scottish drug-use deaths
Nitazenes implicated in 2025 registrations; expanded testing limits year-on-year comparison.
Mortality involvement, not market prevalence.Synthetic cannabinoids
Moderate confidence1,126England treatment starts
OHID's broader psychoactive-substances category, described as mainly synthetic cannabinoids, in 2024–25.
The category includes other substances; it is not a direct SCRA count.Illicit benzodiazepines
High confidence300Scottish drug-use deaths
Street benzodiazepines implicated in 2025 registrations; overlap with opioids and other drugs.
Fatal involvement cannot estimate the number of users.GHB / GBL
Moderate confidenceNo national estimatetargeted evidence
UK evidence documents acute toxicity and use in some sexualised settings; sources commonly group GHB and GBL.
Selected settings do not establish UK population prevalence.Xylazine and medetomidine
Moderate confidence4Scottish xylazine deaths
Xylazine implicated in four Scottish drug-use deaths in 2025. ACMD reports limited UK medetomidine detections.
Small count and evolving testing; neither drug has a national prevalence estimate.Surveillance is not prevalence
These signals concern specific service users, tested substances or registered deaths. No reliable national population-prevalence estimate follows from them. Confidence refers to each dated claim and its defined population, not its ability to represent all drug use.
Drug profiles A–Z ↗04
Four nations
Any past-year drug use among people aged 16–59; 15.1% among those aged 16–24.
Adults reporting use of any listed drug in the previous 12 months. Cannabis was 9%; prevalence was 26–27% among people aged 16–34.
People aged 15–64 reporting illegal drug use in the previous 12 months. A separate 2022 school survey found 4% of Year 8–12 pupils had ever used drugs, rising to 10% in Year 12.
Scotland, Northern Ireland and the combined England-and-Wales series use different ages, questions, sampling methods and publication cycles.
05
Change signals
Each comparison shows its starting and ending period clearly.
Below 1997 and 2014–15 (19.4%); no statistically significant change from 2023–24.
Statistically significant annual decrease.
Magic-mushroom use fell from 2.3% to 0.9%.
Statistically significant annual decrease.
Lower than the estimate ten years earlier.
Higher than the estimate ten years earlier.
06
Frequency and access
Use intensity is separate from population prevalence
Frequency
How often people report use
Any drug · CSEW year ending March 2025
Repeated use
More-than-monthly use by drug · ages 16–59
Fixed age group: past-year users of each relevant drug, England and Wales. This panel does not change with the age selector above.
Source of the last illegal drug taken
Past-year drug users aged 16–59 · fixed population
43.5%obtained drugs from a friend, neighbour or colleague
13.5%obtained drugs from a known dealer
Perceived access to illegal drugs
36.4%said drugs would be easy to obtain within 24 hours · general survey respondents aged 16–59, including non-users · fixed population
How to read this
CSEW is the strongest household-population estimate for England and Wales, but it excludes prisons, most institutions and people without stable accommodation, and self-reporting can understate use. OHID treatment statistics measure service contact in England. Prevalence, treatment demand, seizures and wastewater answer different questions and should be read together.
Download the ONS dataset ↗