DRUGS DEATHS ROCKET
Calls for action as rate soars to twice that of England
SCOTLAND’S status as Europe’s undisputed drug capital was confirmed yesterday as the death rate soared to the highest level since records began.
Despite the Record’s campaign to tackle the “blue plague” epidemic, the numbers who died after taking the benzodiazepines that make up so-called “street Valium” rose 29 per cent to 552 deaths – after more than doubling the previous year.
And use of cocaine, which attracts a different kind of drug user, also rose sharply, claiming 176 lives in Scotland in 2017, up 43 per cent in just one year, which was itself a record.
The number of Scots who have died from drugs in 2017 has doubled in a decade to 934. Three victims were under 14.
There are now an average of 18 deaths a week – more than twice the rate of England – up seven per cent from the previous record in 2016.
That rate has doubled since the SNP came to power in 2007. Since then, the number of women dying from drugs has soared by 354 per cent, from 62 a year to 282.
Drugs charities and politicians demanded urgent action after the Scottish Government repeatedly churned out the same excuses as the death rate soared – effectively claiming there was little that could be done to stop an ageing drug population dying.
A new national drugs strategy is due to be announced and pressure has grown to ensure sufficient funding is in place to support a radical overhaul.
David Liddell, CEO of the Scottish Drugs Forum, said: “Scots are more than five times more likely to die from drugs than in a road accident, yet these deaths are entirely preventable.
“We know how to prevent drug-related deaths and yet we don’t do all that we could to prevent them.”
Liddell acknowledged the terrible impact of the street drugs the Record featured in our “blue plague” campaign two years ago.
He said: “The deaths we are grieving now are caused primarily by street drugs which are often contaminated and mixed with other drugs.
“The police know they cannot arrest their way out of this, nor are we going to imprison the 60,000 Scots who are experiencing a drug problem.
“What we need to do is help people address the issues they have in their lives. That means them being allowed and supported to engage with the health and other services they require.”
Andrew Horne, director of the drug and alcohol charity Addaction Scotland, said: “It is obvious that the current system isn’t working.
“We need to be investing more in substance misuse so that we can help people reduce harm, stay safe and ultimately start out on their personal recovery journeys.”
Martin Powell of the Transform Drug Policy Foundation said Home Secretary Sajid Javid must stop blocking Glasgow NHS’s plans for a consumption room – where people can take illegal drugs under supervision.
Scottish Labour’s health spokesman Anas Sarwar was one of the opposition politicians who castigated the failure of drug policy in Scotland.
He said: “These are shocking figures that should be a wake-up call for the SNP Government.
“The fact that drug deaths in Scotland are two-and-a-half times the rate of the rest of the UK is particularly troubling – as is the more than 200 per cent rise in the number of women dying from drug-related causes.
“Lives have been ruined and families left to cope with grief and trauma for years to come.
“The SNP have slashed alcohol
and drug partnership funding at a time when drug deaths were hitting record levels.
“SNP ministers need to give themselves a shake and take responsibility for their actions.
“If you underfund vital substance misuse services, people die.
“I urge the SNP Government to have the courage to take a different course to ensure this shameful record is reversed.”
Lib Dem MSP Alex ColeHamilton said: “The Scottish Government should hang their heads in shame. The SNP have presided over dramatic cuts to drug and alcohol services and that had a profound human cost.
“We need a complete refresh of the national drugs strategy. Scotland needs to learn the lessons of other countries that have taken radical steps to reduce drug-related deaths.”
Scottish Conservative public health spokeswoman Annie Wells said: “This shows the drugs problem is out of control on all fronts.
“As the Record has repeatedly and correctly highlighted, we have an increasing problem with so-called street Valium.
“This goes beyond what may previously have been considered the problem sufferers.
“It’s important that decision-makers take the Daily Record’s lead and get on top of this problem.” The Scottish Greens were equally disgusted by the appalling death rates. John Finnie MSP, co-convenor of Holyrood’s Cross Party Group on Drug and Alcohol Misuse, said: “These figures are the strongest evidence yet that the Scottish Government need to deliver a serious overhaul of their drugs strategy.” He accused the SNP of “refreshing an approach that is obviously failing or taking the doomed Tory approach of fighting a ‘war on drugs’ that only serves to punish communities”.
Public health minister Joe Fitz Patrick defended the SNP’s drug policy.
He said: “We will continue to do all we can to prevent others from experiencing similar heartbreak.
“We are developing a refreshed substance use strategy. This will take a person-centred approach so treatment and support services address people’s health and social needs, such as mental health, employability and homelessness.”