Fatal uncertainty: death-rate from use of ecstasy or heroin.

We provide a 25-fold range for the ecstacy-related death rate per 10,000 15-24-year-old users in the UK: from 0.2 to 5.3, compared with the death rate of 1.0 from road traffic accidents in the same age-group. The heroin-related death rate in 15-24-year-old heroin users was much higher, but also imprecisely estimated: from 9.1 to 81.5 deaths per 10,000 15-24-year-old users. Data deficiencies which inhibit the calculation of drug-specific rates in this population should be remedied.