Today, I received data (a re-run of table 2 for the link below) from the UK Statistics Authority, to enable me to confirm that drug deaths among younger users are much higher in England & Wales than in Scotland.
The researcher sent me a rerun of the data for the 25-34 group so that I could compare with Scotland’s equivalent group. The published data in the link below uses different groupings from the published version making direct comparison impossible. I’m grateful to him.
In 2021, in England and Wales, there were 501 deaths from drug abuse among the 25-34 age group.
In Scotland, in the same period, there were only 28. With 11 times the population, all things being equal, the figure for England & Wales might reasonably be expected to be around 300 but was 501, was 66% higher.
The figures for the under 25s in both countries are too small for meaningful comparison.
Sources:
Talking-up Scotland / Scottish media fact checking is like shooting fish in a barrel 
On drugs ( and much else ) ”there are lies , damned lies , statistics and Misreporting Scotland Headlines !”
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And again the HIDDEN LIES
COME HOME TOSHOW THE CORRUPTION OF ENGLISH RULE
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Bring on the day Westminster scrutinises
Holyrood
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I dont want anyone dead of drugs…….
but, if it isnt Scots dying, the BBC will not make an issue of it.
Just as they buried Covid stats for England.
Just as they hide A&E stats from the viewers.
Just as they sit on (and always have) bad behaviour at Westminster.
Just as they make no mention of the revenue being sucked in by the revenue from Scotlands oil and gas.
Just as they say nothing about their plans for Scottish renewables electricity.
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I am so sick of all of this. The obvious knocking of all things Scottish in advance of releasing worse figures from across the border. It’s the only transparent thing about UK politics.
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During the first half of 2022 there were at least 1,095 lives lost in British Columbia from toxic-drug overdosing, and more than 10,000 such deaths since April of 2016.
Many, if not most, substance (ab)users resort to reducing or temporarily eliminating their immense stress through chemical means, i.e. euphoria until the drug wears off. Often societally overlooked is that intense addiction usually doesn’t originate from a bout of boredom, where a person repeatedly consumed recreationally but became heavily hooked — and homeless, soon after — on an unregulated often-deadly chemical that eventually destroyed their life and even those of loved-ones.
Either way, neglecting people dealing with debilitating drug addiction should never have been an acceptable or preferable political option. But the callous politics typically involved with addiction funding/services likely reflect conservative electorate opposition, however irrational, towards making proper treatment available to low- and no-income addicts.
Tragically and appallingly, it’s as though some people, however precious their souls, can be considered disposable. Even to an otherwise democratic and relatively civilized nation, their worth(lessness) is measured basically by their sober ‘productivity’ or lack thereof. Those people may then begin perceiving themselves as worthless and accordingly live their daily lives more haphazardly. Sadly, many of the chronically addicted don’t really care if they overdose and never wake up. It’s not that they necessarily want to die; it’s that they want their pointless corporeal hell to cease and desist. And I don’t think I’m just splitting hairs with that point.
Though I have not been personally affected by the opioid addiction/overdose crisis in my country, I have suffered enough unrelenting ACE-related hyper-anxiety to have known, enjoyed and appreciated the great release upon consuming alcohol and/or THC. Yet, I once was one of those who, while sympathetic, would look down on those who’d ‘allowed’ themselves to become addicted to alcohol and/or illicit ‘hard’ drugs.
However, upon learning that serious life trauma, notably adverse childhood experiences, is very often behind the addict’s debilitating addiction, I began to understand ball-and-chain self-medicating: The greater the drug-induced euphoria/escape one attains from its use, the more one wants to repeat the experience; and the more intolerable one finds their sober reality, the more pleasurable that escape should be perceived. By extension, the greater one’s mental pain or trauma while sober, the greater the need for escape from reality, thus the more addictive the euphoric escape-form will likely be.
The lasting PTSD mental pain resulting from such trauma is very formidable yet invisibly confined to inside one’s head. It is solitarily suffered, unlike an openly visible physical disability or condition, which tends to elicit sympathy/empathy from others. It can make every day a mental ordeal, unless the turmoil is prescription and/or illicitly medicated.
The preconceived erroneous notion that drug addicts are simply weak-willed and/or have committed a moral crime is, fortunately, gradually diminishing. Also, we now know that Western pharmaceutical corporations intentionally pushed their very addictive and profitable opiates — the real moral crime — for which they got off relatively lightly, considering the resulting immense suffering and overdose death numbers.
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