Health experts have warned that Scotland faces a fresh drug deaths crisis due to highly potent synthetic opioids already linked to more than 100 fatalities. The Scottish Drugs Forum said a recent surge in the use of nitazenes, a class of synthetic opioids hundreds of times stronger than other opiates, threatens to undermine progress made in reducing overall drug deaths.
Official data showed the total number of drug abuse deaths in Scotland fell by 13% last year to 1,017, the lowest since 2017. This suggests intensifying efforts, including wider use of the opioid antidote naloxone and higher spending on addiction treatment, could be succeeding. However, campaigners warned the figures may be a blip masking an increase in nitazene-related fatalities.
National Records of Scotland data revealed 76 deaths involving nitazenes in 2024, three times higher than in 2023. Public Health Scotland suggested this may have doubled in 2025, with nitazene detected in 38 deaths in the first quarter alone. Kirsten Horsburgh, chief executive of the Scottish Drugs Forum, said: 'There are still increasing harms and increasing numbers of deaths. We are not in a situation where we’ve achieved what we need to achieve.'
Horsburgh added: 'We’re very concerned. For us, this feels like a crisis on top of a crisis.' There are up to 360 different nitazene compounds, making detection difficult, and drugs gangs mix them into other drugs without users' knowledge. Nitazenes are also implicated in deaths in England, detected in 179 cases between June 2023 and May 2024.
Scottish government minister Maree Todd acknowledged the threat, saying: 'This is particularly true as we face new threats from highly dangerous synthetic opioids like nitazenes, which further raise the risk of overdose and death.' Prof Catriona Matheson of the University of Stirling called for further actions, including drug checking services and safe supervised drug consumption sites across the country.
