I know, tabloid writers have to find the bad news. Good news is no news, I’ve heard some say, but you deserve better – a reality construction that might make you want to go with hope in your heart.

So the Herald view is that Scotland’s drink problems have ‘overtaken’ our drug problems on a death spiral to the bottom and just stay at home for the rest of the year. You don’t want to go out. There are corpses everywhere.

What might you want to think instead?

Well drug deaths are down 2

Alcohol deaths are up 2% (statistically not significant), 31 fewer out of 1 276 in a population of 5.4 million (0.02%) but down 11% on 2006, Labour’s last year minding the shop but doing little for Scotland.

Drug deaths are down a very significant 21% to just over a thousand in a population of 5.4 million (0.02%) in one year after a small decline the previous year, due in large part to the world-leading Naloxone opioid overdose reversal nasal spray programme put in place by the SNP Government in 2021.