YOUNG people today are at risk of becoming a new ‘Trainspotting generation’ amid a fresh wave of social security sanctions and the rise of zero-hours contracts, researchers have warned.

It comes as a study blames high unemployment and welfare cuts under the Thatcher government for a subsequent spike in drug deaths in Scotland in the 1990s, with males born in deprived areas between 1970 and 1975 worst hit.

The 'Drug-related deaths in Scotland' study, carried out by Glasgow University and NHS Health Scotland, said that it was "likely" that Scotland's excess rates of mortality from drugs, alcohol and suicide compared to England and Wales "could share a common causal pathway stemming from the changing social and economic policies of the 1980s".

This caused a "delayed negative health impact" which was felt most acutely among young males from the most deprived areas entering the job market in the early 1990s who had "been exposed to high unemployment levels and diminishing support" while growing up.

It was this cohort who were portrayed as Edinburgh heroin addicts in the 1996 film, 'Trainspotting'.

The paper, published today, warns that the fallout from the policies of the Thatcher era is still being felt as Generation X ages and that drugs services "will need to adapt to their needs as co-morbidities from chronic conditions associated with ageing and drug use become more prevalent".

It adds that there is also a risk of history repeating itself in the current climate of austerity.

It states: "There is also a risk that more recent exposures to a more ‘flexible’ labour market and greater conditionality and sanctions in the social security system, particularly for young working-age adults, may in time lead to another cohort at high risk. Continued surveillance of this population is therefore merited."

The study analysed drug deaths in Scotland between 1979 to 2013. After falling in both sexes between 1979 and 1986, drug-related deaths began rising in the second half of the decade and in 1990 "increased noticeably", particularly among young males from the most deprived areas.

The generation born between 1960 and 1980 - known as 'Generation X' - "experienced considerably higher drug-related death rates" over the timeline of the study and was "primarily responsible for the increasing number of deaths over time". Within this, men from the most deprived areas who were born between 1970 and 1975 were worst affected.

Males from the poorest neighbourhoods were also ten times more likely to die from drug than women of the same age in more affluent postcodes.

Dr Andrew Fraser, Director of Public Health Science at NHS Health Scotland, said: “Drug-related deaths rates have continued to increase in Scotland. This work suggests this is likely to be the result of a cohort of people who are at higher risk of drug-related deaths.

"The full impact of excess mortality in these cohorts with high drug-related deaths is unlikely to be known for some time. It already represents the deaths of hundreds of people prematurely."

Dr John Minton, the report author, added: "The same kind of pattern we have observed and reported on previously regarding the risk of suicide in vulnerable cohorts in deprived areas in Scotland is repeated, and even more clearly visible, when looking at trends in drug-related death risk.

"For people born in 1960s and 70s, the risk of drug-related deaths throughout the life course was much increased, and gender and area inequalities in these risks increased even more."

Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale said the report highlighted the "devastating legacy" of Thatcherism for Scotland.

She said: “The Tory government’s policies of the 1980s - which saw the destruction of many working class communities and a vast rise in unemployment - led to rising income inequality and eroded hope across Scotland and the UK.

“For many drugs became a form of escape. A generation on, hundreds of people have already died from drug use, and many remain at risk.

“This report must serve as a reminder to today’s politicians that we must never go back to the days when the most vulnerable in society were simply abandoned.”