The second highest number of overdose deaths in Europe was recorded in Norway after Estonia, according to the European Union report on drugs in 2014.
Some 260 people die of overdoses every year in Norway. Only Estonia reported more overdose deaths per capita than Norway.
According to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), the average mortality rate due to drug overdoses is estimated at 17 deaths per million inhabitants in Europe on average. In Estonia it was 191 in 2012, followed by Norway with 76 deaths per million inhabitants – the highest number among Nordic countries.
In an interview with Aftenposten, Norwegian researcher Anne Line Bretteville-Jensen said the comparison with other countries should be taken with a grain of salt because different countries have different way to report on. For instance, Greece did not report any overdose deaths.
Asked about Norway’s high rate of overdose deaths per capita, Bretteville-Jensen said one reason is that many drug addicts in the country still inject heroin. Addicts in other countries tend to smoke heroin.