Drug users offered anti-overdose kits to curb rising death toll
DRUG users are to be given anti-overdose kits to take home in a desperate bid to halt Scotland’s spiralling death toll.
More than 1,264 people died from drugs in 2019, 77 more than the year before.
Scotland has the worst drugrelated death toll in Europe.
The new treatment can reduce the risk of death from an opiate overdose.
The kits will be supplied after a 999 call for an accidental overdose and can be given to the victim or to a friend or family member who may witness a future overdose. In 2019, the Scottish Ambulance Service was called to around 5,000 i ncidents where naloxone was administered.
The scheme, funded by the drug deaths taskforce, comes as Scotland reported its worst drug deaths figures on record in 2019, prompting the resignation of the public health minister and the creation of a specific drugs policy minister position taken by Angela Constance.
She said: ‘As part of a wide range of measures to address the public health emergency of drugs deaths, tools like naloxone play an important part. We know that naloxone is a very effective way of reducing death by overdose.
‘By providing take-home kits in certain circumstances, there is a chance that a relative or friend will be able to administer it early in the episode, increasing the prospects of a successful outcome.’
Dr Jim Ward, medical director of the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS), said: ‘This new and significant initiative issuing “take-home naloxone” to people at the scene after a non- f atal overdose will support the reduction of potential future harm and death for vulnerable people affected by drug use. SAS is also strengthening its relationship with local drug services and is progressing plans to signpost our patients affected by drug use to these local services.’
The number of drugs deaths increased by 6 per cent on the 1,187 deaths in 2018 – and gives the nation a drugs death rate three-and-a-half times higher than England and Wales, while being the worst of any European country.
There were also almost 800 deaths in 2019 involving so- called legal highs, or New Psychoactive Substances, which mimic the effects of substances including cocaine and ecstasy.
The shocking f i gures l ed to Public Health Minister Joe FitzPatrick agreeing to step down from his post.
Former education and equalities secretary Angela Constance has been appointed as a minister to take charge of the drugs crisis.
The First Minister described the drug deaths figures as ‘completely unacceptable’.
‘Significant initiative’