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BBC presenter Lucy Whyte has claimed Scottish drug deaths hit a record high of 1339 in 2023.

FALSE

The figure of 1339 is from 2020. The figure for 2023 was 1172. BBC Scotland, not for the first time, is circulating fake data that reverses the actual drug death trend. pic.twitter.com/pnIxuZSiDU

— MSM Monitor (@msm_monitor) August 31, 2025

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By Liz S

MSM Monitor tweeted today:

BBC presenter Lucy Whyte has claimed Scottish drug deaths hit a record high of 1339 in 2023. FALSE The figure of 1339 is from 2020. The (actual) figure for 2023 was 1172. BBC Scotland, not for the first time, is circulating fake data that reverses the actual drug death trend.

I checked online and MSM Monitor is 100% correct.

Lucy Whyte stated on Radio Scotland:

“The number of drug related deaths in 2024 is going to be published on Tuesday from 2023 there was another record with 1339 deaths, a three fold increase in 10 years”

I asked the Q online “Scottish drug deaths in 2023” ?

Answer – 1172……

Then I also asked online the Q “Scottish drug deaths in 2020” ?

Answer – a “record high of 1339″…..

Double checked these dates/figures via Public Health Scotland published stats…….

Guess what….. MSM Monitor was right….as PRS were the ones who published these actual correct figures for 2020 and 2023……..

Lucy from the BBC aka amateur broadcasting station then reversed the dates/figures to then try to promote yet another #SNPBAD piece….perhaps to deflect from the current #LabourBad story…..via the really big current Scottish political story just now……as in the one in Scotland regarding Labour MSP Colin Smyth….as in the same political story in Scotland that the BBC and some others are all trying to minimise as being a significant #LabourBad political story….mainly as it is involving , for them, the #WrongPoliticalParty…………..as in it is not the SNP…as in their chosen political baddies.

So basically BBC Scotland’s Lucy Whyte was not only wrong but she was also, via a UK wide ‘national’ broadcaster, reporting fake news as being the actual real news , at a time when her employer, the BBC, have a specific department called ‘BBC Verify’ that supposdley checks , as in verifies, news for it’s……accuracy…..as the BBC, like other mainstream media , are often heard to accuse social media as being untrustworthy and unreliable as those that they, the BBC, say are promoting….Fake News !

BBC really do need to look in the Mirror…..more hypocrisy……ad lies.

I think I can see yet another complaint….to be added onto the (growing list of) BBC ‘Corrections and clarifications’ section/department against BBC Scotland news…so they will have to add, once more, yet another piece of misinformation that has now been broadcast by their branch office in Scotland……

The BBC, a supposed Public broadcaster that, as a also (supposed) news service does a disservice to the public as opposed to providing a service…….as they mostly communicate FAKE in respect to “news where we are”………

Of course in them providing fake news that is then broadcast to the detriment of the SNP they also try to omit or minimise (in significance) any news that they assume will damage other political parties in opposition to the SNP, currently Labour is the one that they, the BBC in Scotland, are trying to protect and so get elected next year in the Scottish elections.

BBC Scotland news, which as a (pretend) Scottish branch office of the BBC, seems to be run like some sub standard amateur media (fake) news channel or as an already well established version of the newly formed rogue ‘news’ channel GB News…..where propaganda and fake news lives and all other actual and real news goes to die…….via both of them (GB News & BBC News).

Liz S

How the English figures are underestimated:

UK Government researchers say 25% of England’s drug deaths not counted to cast serious doubt on Scotland having the highest level

How the Scottish figures are being kept high:

‘Endless supply of young men from larger cities in England’ fuelling Scotland’s drug deaths and a surge in violent crime