This issue is mostly because of the illegal nature of procurement and use...
The study is the first to record age trends in opioid users' mortality and the results demonstrate that many health inequalities between users and the general population widen with age. In the oldest 45-64 age-group, homicide was 27 times more common than would be expected in the general population.
The most common cause of death was drug poisoning and the risk of this increased as users got older: Dr Tim Millar from the University's Centre for Mental Health and Risk led the study. "Crucially, opioid users need to hear this new information on overdose, to emphasise that their risk of overdosing increases as they get older.
"This group is also one of the most vulnerable to homicide - at a rate which is staggeringly higher than in the general population. It is apparent that older users of opioids are one of the most vulnerable groups in society, yet most treatment programmes don't differentiate by age."