Drugs expert: Soaring deaths are a disgrace

A former senior politician and GP has described Scotland’s drugs deaths as staggering and said the country is going backwards as such fatalities continue to rocket.

Figures released on Friday showed 1,339 drug-related deaths in Scotland last year, up 5% on the year before, and a record number for the seventh year in a row.

It means Scotland continues to have the highest drugs deaths in Europe, and a rate more than three-anda-half times that of England and Wales.

Dr Richard Simpson, a former Labour Deputy Justice Minister, and who has also worked as a GP and consultant psychiatrist, outlined a series of steps in The Sunday Post in January that he believed could help tackle the issue, but said the latest figures showed the situation was getting worse, not better.

He added the rate of increase since 2014, the year Nicola Sturgeon became First Minister, was particularly shocking. Deaths, while high, were moderately stable at around 300 to 500 per year until 2013, but climbed to over 600 in 2014 and have now more than doubled.

He said: “We are running out of adjectives to describe how bad the situation is in Scotland. We have been saying it is terrible, horrific and needs to be dealt for five years now, and the situation is not turning around.

“Nicola Sturgeon has been in charge in this area and responsibility lies with her. It is an utter disgrace that she has presided over this now for years. We are now two years into the Scottish Government’s Drugs Task Force being asked to tackle this and we are still going backwards.”

The Scottish Government said: “A national mission on the crisis was announced in January following the appointment of Angela Constance to the newly created post of drugs policy minister.

“Since then, the Scottish Government has announced that £250 million will be spent on addressing the emergency over the next five years.”