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Annie Wells and Russell Findlay Who?, outside a pharmacy in Possilpark to campaign for the next election on Scotland’s drug deaths, luckily for them, still the highest in Europe. Did no one tell them that negative campaigning doesn’t work that well?

Here are the facts:

The drug deaths trend in Scotland has been downward for these last five years, from 1 339 in 2020 to 1 017. A 24.2% fall, by a quarter in only 5 years after more than 20 years of increasing, is very significant and suggests a successful strategy by government, which I’ll return to.

Here is the evidence in two graphs, for 2020 and 2025 from Drug-related deaths in Scotland, 2024, published on 2 September 2025: https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/publications/drug-related-deaths-in-scotland-2024/

The full NRS report contains further evidence that this is a confirmed downward trend and notably reason for optimism regarding younger abusers. For example:

The age profile of drug misuse deaths has become older over time. The average age of drug misuse deaths has increased from 32 years in 2000 to 45 years in 2024.

Becoming addicted during the years of Tory and Labour governments, deaths among older abusers (35-54), due to cumulative effects of long-term drug abuse on their bodies make up 73% of the deaths.

Sadly, very few make it to even 55 years of age and this is reflected in small number of over 54 year-olds in the figures.

Most encouraging is the failure of the under 35’s to surge and to fall to less than 10% of the total.

What explains this trend?

First, for years now 95-98% of drug abusers referred to NHS Scotland begin treatment within three weeks, more than half in only one week and nearly every part of Scotland hits or betters the 90% target: https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/national-drug-and-alcohol-treatment-waiting-times/national-drug-and-alcohol-treatment-waiting-times-1-april-2025-to-30-june-2025/

Second, drug-related hospital admissions plummet for third year in a row after Scottish Government’s ‘world-first’ opioid overdose reversal Naloxone initiative

https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/drug-related-hospital-statistics/drug-related-hospital-statistics-scotland-2022-to-2023/

https://www.sfad.org.uk/naloxone

Why is it not better?

First, Westminster refuses for years to allow safe injection rooms in Scotland despite early evidence:

The largest review ever undertaken, of 349 research studies, from across the globe though mostly in Europe, carried out by the Centre for Criminology at the University in South Wales in 2017, found that ‘safe’ or ‘supervised’ injection rooms significantly reduced drug-related harms, dramatically cut mortality and offered a range of benefits for the wider population, in terms of reduced crime, nuisance in public spaces, violence and trafficking.

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Second, a BBC documentary links increase in drug-related hospital stays after three years of falling to surge in activity by County Lines drug gangs from England https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001kzhq

Third, on comparing with England, see:

Ferret journalists far more than ‘slightly’ wrong on Pete Wishart’s accurate claim that English drug deaths are ‘written out of figures’ when UK civil servants estimated 25% undercounting in 2023!

Please Support Talking-up Scotland at:

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/support-talking-up-scotland

Click on the above.

Or direct bank transfer at Sort Code 08-91-04  Account - 12266421 Name - JOHN ROBERTSON