The needle and the damage done.
Scotland’s drug deaths – the facts:
* The 2017 figure for drug-related deaths in Scotland was 934, the highest ever recorded – it has almost exactly doubled in just ten years.
* Methadone contributed to 47 per cent of the deaths, benzodiazepines such as diazepam contributed to 59 per cent and cocaine contributed to 19 per cent. But use of multiple substances, or ‘poly drug use’ is significant. A single drug was considered to have caused death in just six per cent of cases.
* According to World Health Organisation figures, only Ukraine has a higher death toll from drugs (15.93 per 100,000 residents). Scotland's figure is around 14.
*While there are issues about how drug deaths are recorded and reported in some parts of the world, Scotland’s rate is far higher than all the other EU countries. Lithuania is the next nearest at 6.46 deaths per 100,000.
* While warning comparisons should be made with caution, the UK Office of National Statistics says: “it appears certain that Scotland’s rate is well above the level of most, if not all, of the EU countries.”
* France’s rate is 1.97, Germany’s 1.84 and Portugal, where drugs have been decriminalised, records 0.76 drug deaths per 100,000 people.
* Even within the UK, Scotland is an outlier. the drug death rate here is roughly 2.5 times that of the UK as a whole.
* And we don’t include deaths which are related to drug use, but not directly caused by it. Deaths caused by drug-related infections, such as anthrax or clostridium cases, deaths from chronic complications of drug use, such as pneumonia, or diseases such as HIV, or hepatitis C – even where clearly related to drug use –are not included.
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