Scots drug deaths soar to highest level in EU

●‘Appalling’ figures call into question effectiveness of national drugs strategy

Drug-related deaths in Scotland reached a record number last year, with more per head of population than any other EU country and twoand-a-half times as many as the UK as a whole.

The total rose by 23 per cent from 706 in 2015 to 867 in 2016, official statistics revealed. The 2016 figure is double the 2006 total of 421.

The Scottish Drugs Forum said the figures represented a “national tragedy that requires a fundamental rethink of our approach”.

The Scottish Government said prolonged drug use by an ageing group of addicts was a major factor behind the record rise.

Most drugs-related deaths – 68 per cent – were men, with almost a third of all those who died in the Greater Glasgow and clyde health board area, followed by lothian, lanarkshire and Ayrshire and Arran. Almost threequarters of drug-related deaths were in the over-35 age group.

Public health minister Aileen Campbell said the figures represented a decades-long problem.

“We are dealing with a very complex problem in Scotland – a legacy of drugs misuse stretching back decades,” she said. “What we are seeing is an ageing group of people who are long-term drugs users.

“They have a pattern of addiction which is very difficult to break and they have developed other chronic medical conditions as a result of this prolonged drugs use.

“Unfortunately, there is a general trend of increasing drug-related deaths across the UK and in many other parts of Europe. There are no easy solutions but we recognise that more needs to be done.”

She said a refresh of the government’s drugs strategy would provide

“an opportunity to reinvigorate our approach, to respond to the new challenges emerging and to be more innovative in our response to the problems each individual is facing”.

Dave Liddell, chief executive of the Scottish Drugs Forum, said the scale of the problem is a “national tragedy that requires a fundamental rethink of our approach”.

He said: “Other countries have achieved a reduction in overdose deaths by ensuring that people are appropriately retained in high-quality treatment and we must aspire to do the same.”

Heroin and/or morphine was implicated in or potentially contributed to more deaths than in any previous year at 473 – or 55 per cent of the total.

Scottish Conservative health spokesman Miles Briggs described the figures as “nothing short of appalling”.

He said: “For decades now we’ve had a drugs policy that simply parks people on methadone programmes, offering them zero hope of ever beating addiction completely.

“Not only is that methadone leaving vulnerable individuals in limbo, but it’s killing hundreds of people too.

“Cuts to alcohol and drugs partnerships need to be reversed now, and people need more direct access to physical support.

“A strategy refresh won’t cut it. We need a full parliamentary review of drugs policy in Scotland.”

Scottish Labour’s Monica Lennon also criticised cuts to funding for alcohol and drug partnerships.

She said: “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.”

Green MSP Alison Johnstone added: “Along with the increase in drug-related deaths, infection rates and hospital admissions are also continuing to go up.

“It therefore makes little sense as to why the Scottish Government has cut funding for drug and alcohol partnerships, meaning that the people who deliver the work on the ground are being asked to do their job with fewer resources and [with] a rise in caseloads.”

Scottish Liberal Democrat health spokesman Alex Colehamilton MSP said the figures are “shocking”.

He said: “The Scottish Government slashed funding to drug and alcohol partnerships by more than 20 per cent. Valuable local facilities have shut their doors.

“It is even clearer now that this was completely the wrong decision. These services are best placed to intervene and help avoid lives from being lost.”