The Guardian view on cocaine and domestic abuse: new links between drugs and crime need investigating | Editorial

Patterns of drug supply and use are changing and the government’s five-year-old drug strategy must evolve too

A slight drop in the number of drug deaths over a year in England and Wales is the first such news since 2012. Over the past decade, the grim trajectory has been upward; the annual figure of 5,519 has more than doubled since the 1990s. Given this trend, any fall is a relief. But the spike in deaths linked to cocaine, which has overtaken heroin for the first time, as well as evidence uncovered by the Guardian of a link with domestic violence, points to the need for a drugs policy that takes account of changing usage.