You asked
I would like to know the number of deaths where ecstasy or MDMA was mentioned on the death certificate and the number of deaths where it was the sole reasoning for 2017.
If possible, I would like a breakdown of male and female deaths and in calendar months.
We said
Many thanks for your recent request.
We produce an annual report on deaths relating to drug poisoning. Drug poisoning deaths involve a broad spectrum of substances, including legal and illegal drugs, prescription type drugs and over-the-counter medications. Tables 6a to 6d published alongside the bulletin show the different drugs involved in each death for England and Wales, including MDMA/ecstasy.
This publication will be updated to include 2017 deaths in summer 2018.
A previous ad-hoc request shows the number of deaths involving ecstasy by gender. Unfortunately, there are no estimates readily available on deaths relating to MDMA/ecstasy by calendar months.
Special extracts and tabulations of mortality data for England and Wales are available to order (subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreements of costs, where appropriate). Such enquiries should be made to: mortality@ons.gov.uk. We recommend that you contact the Mortality Analysis team directly in order to discuss your data requirements in more detail.
As the only information that can be provided is already available to you via this route, we considers that s.21(1) applies to this request and the information does not have to be supplied under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act. S.21(1) is an absolute exemption and no consideration of the public interest test needs to be applied.