Scotland’s drug deaths have remained the highest in Europe for the seventh consecutive year, with a 12% increase in fatalities recorded in 2023. The National Records of Scotland data released on Tuesday showed that 1,172 people died from drug misuse last year, up from 1,051 in 2022.
Health Secretary Neil Gray described the figures as “hugely concerning” and pledged to intensify efforts to tackle the crisis. Opioid drugs, including heroin and methadone, were implicated in 80% of all deaths. The number of deaths involving the benzodiazepine bromazolam surged from 54 in 2022 to 426 last year, while synthetic opioids known as nitazenes, linked to 23 fatalities, and cocaine overdoses, which rose to 479 deaths, also contributed to the increase.
Criticism of the government’s response has come from organisations such as the Scottish Drugs Forum. Its policy officer Austin Smith said the same “measurable failures” that have driven the public health emergency persist, with insufficient access to treatment and a lack of wraparound care. A report from the forum found that the target of a 9% increase in the number of people receiving treatment by April 2024 had not been met, and that Medication Assisted Treatment standards introduced in 2021 had not been fully implemented.
Gray acknowledged the government’s national mission on drugs, backed by £250 million, and highlighted efforts including a safer drug consumption facility pilot, drug-checking facilities, and wider access to the overdose-reversal drug naloxone. He also noted growing concern over “super-strong synthetic opioids like nitazenes” and said work was under way to respond to that threat.
