"1.1 In England and Wales something between 1076 and 2997 deaths of drug misusers occurred in 1998 as a result of overdose. Some of those deaths were suicides but most were accidents".

"1.12 Smoking kills about 120,000 people each year, and between 28,000 and 33,000 people die annually as a result of alcohol".

"The substances which the report covers:
1.10 The terms of reference of the Advisory Council naturally point this report towards preventing deaths from the misuse of controlled drugs. However we have in the past felt it to be within the bounds of our responsibilities to report on volatile substance abuse (VSA), and noted within our last report a statistical relationship between deprivation and VSA deaths".

"1.12 While this report must necessarily confine its scope, we feel that it wo uld be remiss not to acknowledge that premature deaths also occur from using other substances. We are aware that smoking kills about 120,000 each year ('Smoking Kills' White Paper published by the Department of Health 1998), while alcohol is responsible for between 28,000-33,000 deaths annually (information given by Alcohol Concern)".