Opiates and opioids, including heroin, morphine and methadone, are implicated in more than 8 out of 10 drug related deaths in Scotland. The picture is the same globally.
Naloxone is a medication designed to rapidly reverse opioid overdose. It is an opioid antagonist—meaning that it binds to opioid receptors and can reverse and block the effects of other opioids, such as heroin, morphine, and oxycodone.
Scotland was the first country in the world, in 2021, 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 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.
Less than two years later, as the take-home scheme spread through opioid-users and their friends and families, this unique Scottish Government programme has turned around fast increasing demand on ambulances and hospitals to administer naloxone in emergency situations. See the dramatic fall in that demand in these two graphs:
Deaths too have begun to fall.
From the National Records of Scotland in August 2023:
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.
Opiates and opioids, including heroin, morphine and methadone, were implicated in more than 8 out of 10 drug related deaths in 2022. The majority of drug misuse deaths were classified as accidental poisonings, with 7% classed as intentional self-poisonings.
https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/node/3911
The UK Government and the media will no doubt credit the SNP in government for this achievement. No?
Other sources:
https://healthandcare.scot/stories/3561/naloxone-drug-deaths-scotland#:~:text=The%20Scottish%20government%20commissioned%20’How,between%20August%20and%20October%202021.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
You have answered your own question.
Look at the graphs you have provided. The ‘rolling average’ smooths out the weekly fluctuations and gives a clearer idea of trends. The weekly fluctuations have occasional very high peaks and low troughs. All the media are interested in are the high peaks – so that they can shout ‘DRUGS DEATHS SOAR, SURGE, ROCKET, GO THROUGH THE ROOF, etc, etc.
Alasdair Macdonald
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