Political inaction on Scottish drug deaths 'shameful'

The latest statistics on drug-related deaths in Scotland have been published by National Records for Scotland. The figures reveal:

• There were 1,264 drug-related deaths in Scotland during 2019, an increase of 6.4 per cent since 2018
• Scotland’s rate of drug-related deaths are 23.1 per 100,000.

The most recent data from the US, which had the highest drug-related death rate in the world for many years as a result of its opioid (particularly fentanyl) crisis, reveals a drug related death rate of 21.7 per 100,000 people in 2019: lower than Scotland's.  Scotland's death rate is now nearly 40 times that of Portugal (0.6 per 100,000) where deaths fell dramatically across all ages after the government decriminalised possession of drugs in 2001, encouraging people to seek help, and putting money saved into treatment. Campaigners for the reform of UK drug policy say the latest figures make Scotland the "drug death capital of the world".

James Nicholls, CEO of Transform Drug Policy Foundation said: “Scotland’s drug deaths are an avoidable, shameful tragedy. For too long, political stalemate and partisan squabbling have prevented action that could address this crisis. As a result, Scotland has the highest drug-related death rates in the world. This has been getting worse for years, and it needs to stop now.

"Bereaved families across Scotland have the right to demand change, and Ministers in Westminster and Holyrood have a duty to deliver it. The Home Office must allow Scotland to adopt a health-led approach in order to tackle the crisis – including allowing overdose prevention centres to be legally established, rather than leaving individuals to risk arrest providing this vital service. The growing calls for the decriminalisation of people who use drugs should also be heeded. We know from Portugal and elsewhere that this can reduce deaths. Treatment services should be seen as a social priority, not left to struggle under endless cuts. No part of the UK should be the drug-death capital of the world. The UK and Scottish Governments need to act now before this catastrophe gets even worse.”

Jolene Crawford of the campaign Anyone’s Child: Families for Safer Drug Control, said: "It is with a very heavy heart that I read the news of drug deaths in Scotland rising again to a record high, making us the drug death capital of the world. How many more families must endure the agony of losing a loved one, like our family did? They talk, while we are dying. How many more need to be sacrificed before real action is taken?”

The UK government’s official advisers, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, have, on a number of occasions, recommended overdose prevention centres, heroin prescribing, increased funding for treatment and ending the criminalisation of users

* Read Drug-related Deaths in Scotland in 2019 here

* Anyone's Child https://anyoneschild.org/

* Transform Drug Policy Foundation http://transformdrugs.org/

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