To, of course, silence from ‘our’ media, the Scottish Government has announced a major expansion of the naxolone opioid overdose -reversal programme which will have played a major part in the first significant 21% fall in drug deaths in 2022:

Access to potentially life-saving naloxone kits, which reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, is being expanded to community pharmacies across Scotland.

All community pharmacies will now hold at least two naloxone kits – either a nasal spray or injectable.  

The Emergency Access Naloxone Scheme, which is backed by £300,000 of Scottish Government funding, begins today (Mon).

Drugs and Alcohol Policy Minister Elena Whitham said:

“Through our National Mission to reduce drug deaths and harms, we have invested more than £3 million in widening access to Naloxone, including through our emergency services.

“Police Scotland recently completed a force-wide rollout to 12,500 officers who have used the kits more than 300 times and, according to the most recent statistics, 70% of those who are at risk of opioid overdose are being provided with a lifesaving kit.

“However, we want to do even more. This new nationwide service is a welcome addition to existing services. It provides a substantial increase life-saving emergency access and I’m grateful to all those in community pharmacies who are supporting our £250 million National Mission to reduce drug deaths.

Lifesaving overdose-reversal scheme – gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

It seem certain that this world-first scheme was a major factor in last year’s first major fall in drug deaths:

From healthandcare.scot, in August 2023:

An independent evaluation of a mass media campaign on how to prevent drug deaths show it has had a positive impact on public awareness and increased the community supply of life-saving naloxone.

The Scottish Government commissioned ‘How to Save a Life’ campaign led to a surge in take-home naloxone – medication which can temporarily reverse an opioid overdose – during its run time between August and October 2021.

[Drug deaths began to fall by 21% in 2022, after falling by 1% in 2021 for the first time after years on climbing]

Adverts on television, radio, social media as well as physical advertising like billboards directed the public on how to access e-learning to administer naloxone and order the kits to their homes. The total number of kits distributed across the community in Scotland increased by 126% to a peak of 27,000 during the mass media campaign.

CEO Kirsten Horsburgh says the evaluation shows the real value and impact of the campaign:

“It is important to understand that many will have reached parts of the community that have not previously been reached in terms of naloxone supply.

“When naloxone kits reach the most marginalised people, are used in an emergency overdose situation and people are then re-supplied with naloxone, we see the potential for sustained impact initiated through the campaign.”

Scotland was the first country in the world to implement a national naloxone programme, which saw take-home naloxone (THN) given to those released from prison and distributed to community drug services.

Naloxone provision has since been expanded to the police [from February 2022] ambulance crews and even Edinburgh taxi drivers. Anyone in Scotland can now order a free naloxone kit from national charity Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol & Drugs (SFAD) and be trained in its use.https://healthandcare.scot/stories/3561/naloxone-drug-deaths-scotland#:~:text=The%20Scottish%20government%20commissioned%20’How,between%20August%20and%20October%202021.

Opiates and opioids [treatable with Naloxone], including heroin, morphine and methadone, were implicated in more than 8 out of 10 drug related deaths in 2022. 

https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/news/2023/drug-related-deaths-decrease#:~:text=Opiates%20and%20opioids%2C%20including%20heroin,classed%20as%20intentional%20self%2Dpoisonings.

While this major drop in drug deaths will not be due to only one factor, the Scottish Government’s world-leading scheme seems, on the evidence, to have been central to this success.

Neither the opposition parties nor the media in Scotland are rushing to praise it.

1,051 people died due to drug misuse in 2022, according to latest statistics published by National Records of Scotland. This is a decrease of 279 deaths compared with 2021, representing the lowest number of drug misuse deaths since 2017. https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/news/2023/drug-related-deaths-decrease#:~:text=1%2C051%20people%20died%20due%20to,drug%20misuse%20deaths%20since%202017.