In the Herald today:

‘The government’ leaves the reader to decide themselves who is repsonsible.

In the Herald report the calls for safe consumption rooms and the decriminalisation of all drugs are repeated the UK Conservative Government’s refusals are not.

The Herald article is based on the SDF report in Third Force News which also does not mention the UK Government, does mention the Scottish Government and only in the very last of 14 paragraphs:

Drugs policy is currently reserved to Westminster.

https://tfn.scot/news/drastic-immediate-action-needed-as-scotland-remains-drug-death-capital-of-europe

Neither report mentions this:

Scotland’s drug treatment service busts 90% target.

During the quarter 1 October to 31 December 2022, 93% of referrals for treatment waited three weeks or less.

In prisons, 94% were seen within three weeks or less.

The 90% target has been beaten for several years.

Source:

https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/national-drug-and-alcohol-treatment-waiting-times/national-drug-and-alcohol-treatment-waiting-times-1-october-2022-to-31-december-2022/

Nor this from July 2021:

Drug deaths rose on Thatcher’s watch but she did not admit the toll was unacceptable

TuS can reveal that within a few years of the Thatcher government’s ‘restructuring’ of Scotland’s economy with sudden heavy industry shut-downs leading to mass unemployment, drug deaths, primarily in those communities where the young had no prospects, began to soar:

These data show a doubling between 1992 and 1993 and a near ten-fold increase toward the end of the decade.

The Conservative Government response was further criminalising of drug abuse victims.

By 2002 after 5 years of New Labour, deaths had doubled to 280 per year and by 2007, when the SNP inherited the problem, they had reached 455:

https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/vital-events/deaths/drug-related-deaths-in-scotland/archive/2007/list-of-tables