Professor John Robertson OBA

From Suspected drug deaths in Scotland: January to March 2025 – This quarterly report presents Police Scotland management information to provide an indication of current trends in suspected drug deaths in Scotland, published today:

There were 1,053 suspected drug deaths over the 12 months to March 2025, 14% (166) fewer than the 12 months to March 2024 (1,219).

Note that numbers of suspected drug deaths fluctuate from quarter to quarter. Care should be taken not to interpret movements between individual calendar quarters as indicative of any long-term trend.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/suspected-drug-deaths-scotland-january-march-2025/

That last point will, of course, be ignored by all at BBC Scotland, STV, the Herald and the Scotsman.

Is that 14% fall all we might hope for?

Not at all. It would be falling faster if not for the current plague of around 50 County lines drug gangs, from England, bringing new more powerful yet cheaper drugs backed up by extreme violence, to every town in Scotland.

See, for example:

A clear causal connection between Liverpool drug gangs, the flood of cheap, more powerful, drugs into Scotland and our still far too high drug deaths. Why are Scotland’s media ignoring that?

and

West Midlands rapper’s ‘County Lines’ drug gang triggering drug deaths spike with deadly additives

and

London County Lines ‘drug lord’ jailed six years ago in ‘landmark’ slavery case admits today using children to deal in Aberdeen but such drama is hidden by ‘Scottish’ media