Drugs-related deaths rise

Drug-related deaths in South Lanarkshire have nearly doubled in the last decade, according to shock new figures.

In 2015, 31 people in the region died from drugs, compared with 16 in 2005.

The figures also revealed drug deaths across the whole of Lanarkshire have risen 78 per cent over the last decade. The 2015 total of 73 compares with 41, 10 years earlier.

Heroin and/or morphine was involved in just over half of the deaths, while methadone was named as a factor in a fifth of deaths.

Cocaine was implicated in eight deaths, amphetamines in one death, while ecstasy-type drugs were a factor in four deaths and alcohol was named as a factor in 14 deaths. And 60 of the drug-related deaths involved one or more opiate drugs, which include heroin, morphine and methadone.

Aileen Campbell, Clydesdale MSP and minister for public health and sport, said:“These figures show we have an ageing group of drug users who are experiencing increasingly poor health. This is a legacy of Scotland’s drug misuse which stretches back decades.”