Scotland has worst drug deaths rate in the West

‘Out of control’ methadone scheme to wean addicts off heroin blamed for 27 per cent rise in deaths

SCOTLAND has the worst drugs problem in the Western world, according to the latest figures, with a death rate higher than the United States and every country in Europe.

Its “out of control” methadone programme, in which the heroin substitute is prescribed to addicts, has been blamed for the death toll reaching 1,187 last year – a 27 per cent increase on 2017 and the first time the toll has gone above 1,000 in a single year.

Methadone accounted for more deaths than the drug it is meant to replace, and contributed to nearly half the total mortality figure.

The National Records of Scotland said the country now had a higher mortality rate than anywhere in Europe.

In the US there is a drug death rate of 217 per million, compared with 218 per million in Scotland. The death rate in England is 66 per million.

Scotland is rated worst overall on the European table of drug deaths per capita, ahead of Estonia, Sweden and Norway. The UK, as a whole and including Scotland, is fifth overall.

Methadone in Scotland was prescribed more than 400,000 times last year. While some addicts are also treated in the same way in England, the NHS has halved the amount being handed out in the past 10 years with GPS also referring people to rehab and telling them to seek other help.

The statistics show that 72 per cent of those who died were male, with more than 1,000 deaths involving methadone, heroin and morphine. A large proportion – 792 – had also taken pills such as diazepam and etizolam.

These “street valiums” can be bought for less than the price of a chocolate bar, at just 30p, in central Glasgow, and are regularly taken in conjunction with opiates, often with fatal consequences.

Joe Fitzpatrick, Scotland’s public health minister, said the figure was “shocking” and repeated calls for the UK Government to enable the creation of a safe “drug consumption room” in Glasgow, which the Home Office has refused to approve.

But the Scottish Conservatives said it was the SNP administration that had presided over a catastrophic rise in drug deaths while having control of health and justice for 12 years. The Tories and Labour also criticised the SNP for cutting funding to a “vital support network” of alcohol and drug partnerships in recent years.

Prof Neil Mckeganey, of the Glasgow-based Centre for Substance Use Research, said the methadone programme was out of control and acting as a “black hole into which people are disappearing”.

Methadone was issued on more than 423,000 occasions in 2018; the professor claimed it was not known how many addicts were on the programme or what progress they were making.

There was a record 3,756 drug deaths in England in 2017, with cocaine deaths more than doubling in five years.

A spokesman for Theresa May insisted the UK Government had a strategy for dealing with drugs, adding: “As well as that, the Scottish government has its own approach to tackling drugs and alcohol misuse in areas which have devolved responsibilities such as healthcare [and] criminal justice.”