Scotland has worst drug death rate in the developed world
SCOTLAND has the highest rate of drug deaths in the developed world, shocking figures reveal.
The number of drug-related fatalities soared to 1,187 last year, the highest since records began in 1996.
Scotland’s drugs mortality rate in 2018 was 218 per million, statistics show – more than three times the UK average of 66 per million.
They were fractionally above the US average at 217 per million, although their most recent data is for 2017.
Heroin substitute methadone was a factor in nearly half of the recorded deaths, raising concerns that thousands of addicts are ‘parked’ on the substance.
Critics have blamed years of soft justice under the Scottish National Party, which has enabled drug offenders to be let off with fines and warnings.
Many are concerned England is heading in the same direction with several police forces allowing Class A users to avoid prosecution.
Scottish Tory health spokesman Miles Briggs said there had been a ‘de- facto decriminalisation of drugs in Scotland, where police are so depleted in the war on drugs they’ve all but given up trying to tackle it on the ground’.
He said: ‘SNP ministers have failed addicts, their families and Scotland’s communities – make no mistake, this is a crisis that has unravelled on their watch, and which hasn’t been replicated anywhere else in the UK.’
The figures from the National Records of Scotland show the number of drug deaths rose from 934 in 2017 to 1,187 in 2018.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde accounted for a third of the drugrelated deaths, followed by NHS Lothian with 13 per cent and NHS Lanarkshire at 11 per cent.
The highest number of deaths were in the 35-44 age group, followed by those aged 45-54.
Despite the alarming figures, ministers and public health chiefs are throwing their backing behind radical drugs policies.
Plans are under way for a heroinassisted treatment centre in Glasgow, where addicts can inject drugs they have been given by the NHS. Some Scottish public health chiefs are calling for ‘shooting galleries’ to be set up where users bring their own heroin.
Dr Andrew McAuley, of Health Protection Scotland, said the provision of ‘safer consumption facilities [shooting galleries] could reduce both drug-related harms and deaths’.
Scottish Labour health spokesman Monica Lennon said the UK Government must ‘reassess its approach’ and ‘find the best way to stop more families being left heartbroken’. SNP MP Pete Wishart, chairman of the Scottish Affairs Committee, said: ‘Westminster must wake up to the reality that a new, evidence-based approach to drugs is needed.’