Professor John Robertson OBA
Drug deaths have always been more prevalent in poorer communities. In Scotland, half of all drug deaths are from among the 20% most deprived neighbourhoods.1
According to research recently published by David Walsh and Gerry McCartney2, of Glasgow University, drug deaths amongst the most deprived communities in Scotland had begun to climb from around 2003 to 2009, under New Labour and then again, but far more dramatically, from around 2012 to 2019 under the Conservative Government.
Amongst the least deprived, drug deaths were largely unaffected by austerity policies such as, of course, reduced or withdrawn benefits but among the most deprived 20%, already making up 50% of all drug deaths, the consequences were extreme and horrific, with the death rate more than doubling, sickeningly, from around 45 per 100k to more than 100 per 100k, in only 8 years, between 2012 and 2019. In crude terms, just for this group (20% of the population) this meant a horrifying increase from around 2 450 deaths per year to 5 400 per year.
Walsh & McCartney put it bluntly and heartbreakingly:
Within a year or two of the introduction of austerity, people sought a way out. They looked for oblivion.
Very simply this means that the level of drug deaths in Scotland is almost entirely a consequence of the economic policies of the Conservative Government in the UK, cutting and withdrawing benefits from those most vulnerable – addicts.
Some will, of course, try to blame the Scottish Government for inadequate service provision for addicts but this does not survive a collision with the facts. NHS Scotland has historically and consistently treated between 90% and 95% of around 20 000 referrals per year for drug and drug/alcohol co-dependency.3 The target is 90%. This success is, of course, never reported by media.
Support Scots Independent, Scotland’s oldest pro-independence newspaper and host of the OBA (Oliver Brown Award) with my regular column on media coverage at: https://scotsindependent.scot/FWShop/shop/
The Oliver Brown Award for advancing the cause of Scotland’s self respect, previously awarded to Dr Philippa Whitford, Alex Salmond and Sean Connery: https://scotsindependent.scot/?page_id=116
About Oliver Brown, the first Scottish National Party candidate to save his deposit in a Parliamentary election: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Brown_(Scottish_activis
Sources:
- https://publichealthscotland.scot/news/2024/october/analysis-reveals-families-and-communities-impacted-by-drug-related-deaths-in-scotland/#:~:text=In%202020%2C%20drug%20related%20deaths,drug%20related%20death%20in%202020.
- Walsh, D. and McCartney, G. (2024) Social Murder? Austerity and Life Expectancy in the UK, Policy Press, Bristol
- https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/national-drug-and-alcohol-treatment-waiting-times/national-drug-and-alcohol-treatment-waiting-times-1-april-2024-to-30-june-2024/
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
This evidence on Cameron/Osborn austerity is devastating. Other research has shown the same. The UN Rapporteur commented a few years ago that austerity was a political choice not an economic or social necessity and driven by Tory dogma to shrink the State while funnelling wealth upwards from the poor to the rich.
I find it sickening that politicians can make “criminal” decisions that harm the most vulnerable and get off scot free with no consequences. These vile people should be in prison!!
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The Scottish Gov is funding total abstinence proper rehab £250Million over five years. This will help cut drug deaths. Instead of people being put on methadone for years and taking other substances.
The drug deaths are recorded in Scotland as a total. Elsewhere they are recorded separately, as accidental drug death, heroin deaths or death by poison. 3 different categories.
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