Tragic drugs death toll rises in Scotland again as government announces first 'drug checking service' to open

Last year 830 men and 303 women lost their lives because of drug use according to the latest statistics from the National Records of Scotland.

While drugs deaths were down by five per cent for women, there was a 19 per cent increase in the number of men who died, and the average age across both sexes of those who died was 46.

Scotland's most deprived areas saw 15 times more deaths from drug use than the most affluent areas, with Glasgow and Dundee being the worst affected.

And cocktails of drugs were implicated in almost four out of five deaths - with the figures also showing a 23 per cent rise in deaths where cocaine was implicated, to 589, while nitazenes - synthetic opioids - were implicated in 247 drug use deaths last year.

The rise in deaths comes six years after the Scottish Government launched a £250m five-year action plan to tackle the tragic toll of deaths across Scotland, after former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon admitted she had taken her "eye off the ball".

And the figures have sparked a new row over initiatives such as Glasgow's safe consumption room.

But Scotland's drugs minister, Maree Todd, today blamed an “increasingly toxic and unpredictable drugs supply”.

She said: “My heartfelt condolences go out to everyone who has lost a loved one to drug use.

“Each and every death is a tragedy, and even more so because every life lost to drug harms is preventable.”

She added: “Against an increasingly toxic and unpredictable drugs supply, this rise is deeply concerning and unacceptable.

“The increase in deaths involving cocaine, and the continued threat from dangerous synthetic opioids like nitazenes, must drive more coordinated action across the country.”

She added: “We have taken important steps forward, including funding more than 1,100 residential rehabilitation placements last year and widening access to treatment and life-saving naloxone.

“However, despite these policy interventions, and the actions of our valued frontline workers, it is clear we need to do much more to reduce this tragic loss of life.

“Our new Alcohol and Drugs Strategic Plan will strengthen surveillance, deepen links between treatment, housing and other services, and target support at the communities most at risk.

“I have also announced today that Scotland’s first local drug-checking service will open in Glasgow this October – building on the UK’s first safer drug consumption facility.”

The service will take samples of users’ drugs and show them exactly what they contain. She said it would allow for harm-reduction, and will use AI to show how dirty Scotland’s drugs really are.

The initiative is hosted by the Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science at the University of Dundee, an the Scottish Government hopes it will be the first of many, with facilities due to open later in Dundee and Aberdeen, while another is being planned for Edinburgh.

Ms Todd said while the Scottish Government was “using every lever available through our devolved powers” more powers over drugs must be transferred from Westminster to help tackle the problem.

“It is clearly now vital that the UK Government work with us to transfer the greater powers over drugs policy that we require to treat drug harms fully as a public health issue."

But Annmarie Ward from recovery charity Favor UK told LBC she doesn't think the rise in deaths can be put all down to stronger substances.

"I'm angry and I'm heartbroken because there are so many more people dead," she said. "Of course, nitazines are terrifying and they were implicated in three times more deaths than last year, but please don't try and tell me that nitazines explain Scotland's drug death crisis.

"We've been burying people at an appalling rate long before they hit the drug scene."

She added: "After years of a national mission, and standards, and task forces and strategies and plans, we're getting worse. We cannot keep doing this.

"The system is not delivering despite throwing enormous amounts of money at this. We've built an entire industry around attempting to manage a condition which is unmanageable. I want a system built around helping people to get people free from dependency and actually recover and exit that system, not to retain them in the system.

"Of course give people naloxone, give them medication, but don't stop there. Help them get through detox, get into rehab, find recovery communities, rebuild their families and homes, find work and purpose and ask them is you're life getting better.

"I know recovery is possible because I've lived it and watched others do it too and I expect it and our system has to chagnge the culture of expectation that we can't recover, because we can. There are 1133 people dead again this year, if that doesn't force us to change the system what will?"

Paul Bowley, chief executive of Abbeycare, one of Scotland’s leading residential rehab and detox services, described Scotland as being "in the grip of a drugs death crisis" being made worse by the emergence of new synthetic opioids and other substances.

He added: “It is clear that the national mission to reduce the harms caused by drugs has much work still to do, with more investment needed in treatment and recovery services and clearer pathways for people to seek help.

“We know that residential rehab is one of the best ways to achieve a lasting recovery, and we stand ready to assist, working alongside other crucial interventions and services.”

And Tracy Morrice, head of service delivery at WithYou in Glasgow, said the impact of the figures was felt right across the communities they work with.

"These aren't just statistics, they represent sons, daughters, parents and friends from communities throughout Glasgow, and my thoughts are with everyone in the city who has lost someone to drugs," she said.

"Every one of these deaths was preventable, and every one leaves a wider circle of people behind."

Tracy added that the drug supply locally has also become harder to predict."The drug supply here has changed in ways that make it much harder for people to know what they're actually taking.

"That unpredictability is driving a lot of the risk we're seeing on the ground.“We're also seeing more polydrug use, where people take more than one substance at once.”

In Holyrood, Scottish Conservative health spokesman, Miles Briggs MSP, described the latest figures as "horrific" and said they government's approach to to tackling Scotland’s drugs deaths crisis has "catastrophically failed."

He added: “Behind these statistics are 1,133 families who are grieving the loss of loved ones due to drugs over the last year and my thoughts are with them.

“Scotland’s drug deaths rate remains the worst in Europe and that should shame the SNP. They cannot continue to double down on their policies when the number of lives being lost has soared over the last year."

He urged the government to "shut down their flagship Thistle facility in Glasgow and ditch any plans for more state-sponsored drug taking at drug consumption rooms, including in Edinburgh."

Scottish Labour's health spokesperson Jackie Baillie said the statistics were a "travesty" and a "damning indictment of the Scottish Government’s failure to support some of the most marginalised people in Scotland."

She added: “Action is long overdue and we cannot afford any more delays while lives are being lost. We need to ensure people can access both emergency life-saving care in their hour of need and long-term recovery treatment.

“The SNP has been warned about the danger of synthetic opioids for many years now. They must take responsibility for this crisis and deliver joined-up action to save lives and help people recover.”

Reform's spokesman on drugs policy, MSP Victor Currie, said the government was failing its most vulnerable citizens.

He added: "Five years ago, Nicola Sturgeon called Scotland's drug deaths a "national disgrace" and promised £250 million to end it in five years. We now know that mission has categorically failed."

But the Scottish Greens said the latest figures showed a need for more radical action. Health spokesperson Kayleigh Kinross-O’Neill said: “We cannot meaningfully cut these numbers without tackling the conditions that are driving harmful drug use in the first place, such as poverty, trauma, poor mental health, isolation, and deprivation.

“That means a major expansion of harm reduction and treatment services, including safe consumption facilities in areas where public drug use is a serious concern.

“It also means wider access to drug checking, heroin-assisted treatment and stabilisation services, alongside properly funded support that addresses people’s medical, psychological and social needs together."