Illegal drugs-related fatalities in Slovenia.

The study includes 122 medico-legally examined fatal poisonings with illegal drugs in Slovenia (1.96 million inhabitants) in years 1997-2003. The highest death rate expressed per 10(5) inhabitants per year was observed in the year 2002 with 1.17, the average value over 1997-2003 was 0.89; the trend line shows a stabilisation. Heroine/morphine dominated as the cause of death and were responsible for 71.3% of the fatal poisonings. Methadone was found to cause or contributed to death in 28 cases (22.9%). One death by cocaine and two by MDMA were caused in the time observed. Males represent 98.4% of the direct illegal drug-related deaths. The main ages of heroine/morphine group, heroine/morphine only and methadone group were 27.6, 24.1 and 26.8, respectively. Between 1997 and 2003, there was a downward trend in the average age in the group heroine/morphine only. Since 2001, we are the part of the national working group on key indicator "drug-related mortality" applying EMCDDA methodology.