CUTS to addiction services have led to the highest annual number of deaths caused by drug poisoning since records began.

There was a total of 4,359 drug poisoning deaths in England and Wales last year, according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS).

The figure includes accidental overdoses, suicides from medicines and illicit substances as well as deaths caused by drug-related mental illness or assaults.

It is the highest annual increase since records began in 1993 — rising by 16 per cent from 2017.

Drug misuse led to 2,917 deaths last year. Most were linked to opiates, but those caused by cocaine doubled while deaths related to use of MDMA were also at their highest.

Deaths from drug misuse among men aged between 40 and 49 rose “significantly,” according to ONS statisticians.

The north-east of England was the region with the most drug-related deaths while London had the least.

The Transform Drug Policy Foundation said Britain’s rate of drug deaths was 12 times that of Portugal, which decriminalised drug possession in 2001.

Labour’s shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “The war on drugs approach is simply not working.

“Ministers must reverse cuts to addiction services and start treating this issue as the public health emergency it is.”

Findings by University of Kent criminal justice professor and government drugs misuse adviser Alex Stevens show that funding cuts have forced councils to slash spending on drug treatment services by 27 per cent since 2015-16.

Addiction services spending fell by more than 50 per cent in some of the areas with the highest rates of drug-related deaths — all in the north of England.

Professor Stevens told Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday that these funding cuts were the cause of the increase in drug-related deaths.