DRUG-related deaths have more than doubled in Northern Ireland over the past decade, with fatalities linked to heroin the highest on record.
Figures released by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra) show 191 people lost their lives to drugs in 2019 compared with 84 in 2009.
Men aged 25-44 accounted for almost half of the deaths.
Heroin and morphine were the most frequently mentioned opioids on death certificates and were connected to 46 fatalities, up from 40 in 2018.
Despite pleas from health chiefs for users not to mix substances, than half (56%) of deaths involved three or more drugs.
A total of 189 drug-related deaths were recorded in 2018.
Poverty also played a major role, with researchers finding: "The statistics indicate that there are notably higher numbers of drug-related deaths in areas of deprivation across Northern Ireland. People living in the most deprived areas are five times more likely to die from a drug-related death than those in the least deprived areas."
Cocaine linked deaths increased from 28 in 2018 to 37 in 2019, the "highest level on record".
Diazepam was listed in 36.6% of deaths, a decrease from previous years. However, fatalities involving pregabalin, have "risen consistently" since its first appearance in statistics in 2013 - the annual number of deaths involving the controlled substance rose more than eight-fold from nine in 2016, to 54 in 2018 to 77 in 2019.
"The latest figure sees pregabalin appearing in 40.3 per cent of all drug related deaths," the Nisra research found.
Meanwhile, there was drop in the proportion of fatalities where alcohol is mentioned on the death certificate - from 23.3 per cent in 2018 to 16.2 per cent in 2019.
The figures also showed that drug related mortality rate remained "relatively constant" between 2018 and 2019 for men and women.
