Number of drug misuse deaths and 5-year rolling average, 1996 to 2024: https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/publications/drug-related-deaths-in-scotland-2024/
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Professor John Robertson OBA
I’ve been thinking over all the recent posts here on drug deaths and this short summary may be useful.
- Based on the official government-published figures and despite the recent falls, drug deaths in Scotland remain higher than the average in England & Wales and in the EU.
- Based on these same sources, the rate is falling fast and steadily, over three to four years, in Scotland and in some parts of the EU but climbing equally fast in some parts of England, Wales and the EU.
- Even staying with these sources, Scotland will have a lower rate than the average in England & Wales or the EU and much lower than in some parts of England (the North) and the EU within the next few (2-5) years.
- However, government experts in the UK and the EU say that drug deaths are being undercounted by 20-25% but by only 1-2% in Scotland, where almost all drug deaths are counted.
- Adjusting for these figures, drug deaths in Scotland would still be higher than the average in England & Wales and the EU but the gap would be much smaller, the point at which Scotland’s stop being the highest much sooner and, already, lower in some parts of the EU and England (the North).
- BBC Scotland and other ‘Scottish’ media will soon have to move on when it comes to gloating over Scotland’s drug deaths.
- This success is despite but less than it might have been had we not suffered English city-based County Lines gangs plaguing 50 Scottish towns with new cheap, more powerful, drugs backed up with extreme violence.
If you have further insights into this, please comment below.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Correct me if l am wrong please .In a road vehicle death in Scotland , if the driver is found with drugs in his system it is recorded as a drug death but in England is just recorded as a ” Road accident death” and not drug related.
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Not sure. Tried Grok AI but it was unclear too
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Drug deaths elsewhere are counted in three categories. Death from drug misuse, accidental drug death, death from heroin. In Scotland it is given as a total. Making it seem higher. Recorded differently.
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Drug deaths in Scotland are down 155. Scottish Gov funding proper rehab facilities £250million over five years. Proper rehab facilities are opening everywhere.
Alcohol consumption is down. Less deaths. MUP.
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Drug deaths are down 155. Scottish Gov funding proper rehab facilities £250million over five years. They are opening everywhere.
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That graph shows a large surge around 2014. What was happening then to explain this surge?
When I was in College (in the 1970s) I had a tutor from New York. She told me that the CIA had deliberately flooded the underworld with heroin in order to get rid of the large gangs such as the Sharks and the Jets of West Side Story fame. It worked.
I lived in the North East most of my life. After oil was discovered and partly displaced the fishing industry, which had already been decimated by entry into the EU and Thatcher’s reforms, the coastal towns were flooded with heroin, something never seen before. Money attracts organised crime.
To quote an old woman from Fraserburgh, “My husband was a fisherman and drowned at sea. My son was a fisherman and drowned at sea. My grandson died of an overdose.”
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I hope to live for the day when comparisons with rUk are unnecessary. The day when we don’t have to prove anything to anyone but ourselves.
That’s what I hope for – for my great grandchildren.
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