By Professor John Robertson OBA
From Public Health Scotland, today (Latest release):
During 2024/25 Quarter 1 (1 April 2024 to 30 June 2024), 7,886 Take-Home Naloxone (THN) kits were issued.
What is the purpose of these take-home kits, increasingly issued?
The aim of Scotland’s National Naloxone Programme is to reduce drug-related deaths by preventing fatal opioid overdoses. This initiative, the first national programme of its kind in the world, has been in place since April 2011. Accidental overdose is a common cause of death among users of heroin, morphine and similar drugs, which are referred to as opioids. Naloxone is a drug which reverses the effects of a potentially fatal overdose with these drugs.1
Has the programme been effective?
In terms of hospital demand2, yes:
In terms of drug deaths, yes, but less so:
From the above, published by the NRS in August 20243; while there has been an upturn in 2023, the overall trend remains slightly downward.
Why are Scotland’s drug deaths not falling faster given the Naloxone scheme’s impact?
County Lines gangs seek new markets along public transport lines, in small towns and rural areas where local dealers can be dominated with threats of extreme violence and a property can be taken over. Using their scale of operations, these gangs can transport and sell more powerful drugs, more cheaply, using couriers as young as 11, to users unused to the low costs and higher strength. Increased drug deaths is a simple and predictable consequence.
These same gangs, entirely from English cities, were first reported in Scottish towns, up the east cast rail lines to places such as Aberdeen, Fraserburgh, Inverness and Wick, around 2019, just as Scotland’s drug deaths had begun to plateau and, in 2021, fall (see NRS graph above).
Sources:
- https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/national-naloxone-programme-scotland-quarterly-monitoring-bulletin/national-naloxone-programme-scotland-quarterly-monitoring-bulletin-april-to-june-q1-202425
- https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/drug-related-hospital-statistics/drug-related-hospital-statistics-scotland-2022-to-2023/
- https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/vital-events/deaths/drug-related-deaths-in-scotland/202
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Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
It’s a huge problem and we really must open the debate on a hard border. We can’t have our kids lives destroyed.
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SNP Gov funding total abstinence rehab facilities. £250million over five years. More young people going for help. Less heroin use. Ketamine and cocaine still deadly over time. Albanian gangs cultivating cannabis farms. More is grown in the UK than imported. Strong skunk. Psychotic. Ruining mental health.
Councils (unionists) social care. Prescribing methadone for years. More damaging than heroin over time.
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