Scotland’s drug epidemic: ‘I lost my leg to £15 heroin hit’

Published

2 years ago

August 21, 2023

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He is a military veteran who ended up hooked on heroin for a decade, until one dodgy hit of the lethal drug cost him £15 and his leg.

Willie, who is 48 and sleeps on the streets of Dundee, has lived a life of misery and stubborn addiction after medics were forced to remove his leg when an evening of hunting for his latest fix went catastrophically wrong.

The amputee is unclear whether he lost his leg because of a dirty needle or whether the drugs were packed with unknown, potent substances.

The chaos of the evening that changed his life is a blur and something of a mystery.

On the frontline of Scotland’s drugs death emergency, Willie says there’s “no support” as a new wave of crack cocaine washes over his hometown.

Dundee – a city home to fewer than 150,000 people – has been the notorious epicentre of Europe’s overdose crisis for years. Many of Willie’s friends have been killed.

There has been a sharp and sustained rise in drug deaths across Scotland since 2013.

Despite a slight dip in 2021, a record number of lives have been lost in the last decade with former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon previously admitting her government “took our eye off the ball”.

Drug deaths predicted to fall

Experts have told Sky News the latest drug death figures, set to be released on Tuesday, are likely to show the loss of life among Scots is finally decreasing.

One leading figure claims there could be a substantial drop in the most recent 12-month period – but the havoc is far from over on the streets of Dundee.

Professor Catriona Matheson, an expert in substance misuse from Stirling University, said: “All the indications I have seen show the figures for 2022 will be reduced. Not just a little bit.

“It means some of the initiatives that have been put in place are starting to have an effect.

“But, we cannot say we are on a downward trajectory because there is an illicit market with new synthetic opioids which are very cheap, potent and we are starting to see those coming through.”

Acid attacks and £10 valium

Staggering down the street is one mum who is gripped by dangerous cravings. She tells a frightening tale of acid being poured over her legs amid a struggle with a drug debt linked to an underworld figure.

She is in agony as the open wounds on her limbs ooze bodily fluids.

Sky News went inside the nearby Lochee high-rise estate, where locals told of a dangerous scene where crime is rife and drugs are deadly.

One father, Barry Richie, describes the relentless loop of having to dodge people suffering overdoses in the common areas and stairwells.

He said: “I can’t bring my kids here on the weekend.”

Addicts on the scheme say access to illegal substances is easier than ever. One says he can get a packet of 25 valium pills for £10 within “seconds” by making a quick phone call.

Another user said: “The place is flooded with crack. It has always been bad but this year it is 100 times worse”.

The presence of Sky News became a problem when one dealer approached the cameras with a thinly veiled threat suggesting he had his throat “slit” recently and the police don’t scare those involved in the drugs trade.

“You are being watched right now,” he warned.

A short time later the situation was at risk of being hostile and filming was abandoned.

Street benzos, blues, diazepam and valium

The types of substances are an evolving picture.

There were 918 deaths involving benzodiazepines in 2021, nearly five times as many as 2015.

The prescription drugs, which mostly come via the black market, are commonly known as street benzos, blues, diazepam and valium.

Street performer Jesse Jones says pills these days would “blow your mind” compared to the strength of heroin.

The 53-year-old, who plays the bongos in Dundee’s main shopping area, says he can get a handful of 25 valium tablets within minutes for less than the price of a bottle of vodka.

He said: “There was one time I was at my girlfriend’s and I had taken four and I instantly recognised why people are dying. I was scared. If I had taken another 15, I would not be here.

“Some people are crazy on it. It does bring the worst out in people. This is like a different planet. It is light years apart compared to heroin.”

Drugs deaths are now recognised as one of the biggest contributors to Scotland’s falling life expectancy. Some data indicators suggest overdoses among Scots are higher than even in the United States.

The rate of death compared with the available figures from European neighbours reveals the extent of Scotland’s problems.

Why is Scotland unique?

Experts say poverty and lack of opportunities are the key drivers.

People in the most deprived areas of Scotland are more than 15 times as likely to die from drugs compared to those in an affluent area, according to the National Records of Scotland.

Kirsten Horsburgh, who has worked in drug treatment services for more than a decade, is chief executive of the Scottish Drugs Forum. The charity is a leading voice on the crisis.

She said: “A lot of the same problems exist in England and in other areas in terms of poverty, deprivation and trauma. But the issues are more concentrated in Scotland.

“One of the drivers for drug-related deaths is the lack of people being in the treatment that would potentially save their lives. We have less than 40% of people accessing that treatment. In England, they do have more people accessing treatment.

“There has definitely been progress in the way our treatment services are delivered and improvement with standards to get people accessing more timely treatment.

“We know that there is likely to be a slight reduction in the numbers of deaths that we will see [in Tuesday’s latest figures]. This is positive but it is still not a sign of success when we will still have well over 1,000 people having died.

Drug laws are currently reserved to Westminster but the Scottish government has control of health and social policies around drug consumption.

Ministers in Edinburgh have ploughed in £250m into the country’s addiction services but key targets have been missed.

Data suggest almost 60% of services have not given addicts the option to start treatment the same day they turned up for help, despite that being the expected standard.

It has resulted in charities taking matters into their own hands.

As figures show the number of women dying from drugs is on the rise, Sky News was given special access inside a unit for homeless women who are addicted to drugs.

The facility, run by the Simon Community Scotland, has changed its approach to move away from a “no tolerance” approach to drug use.

Previously the shelter’s residents risked losing their room if they were caught taking substances within the building but amid the growing national emergency, the charity shifted its stance.

Clean needles and safe injecting equipment is now provided in a special harm reduction room alongside naloxone which is a medication to reverse opioid overdose.

Hannah Boyle, from the charity, said the results have been game-changing.

She said: “In 2020 we tragically lost 17 people in our residential services and in 2021 we lost one person. That is a dramatic shift and decrease in numbers.

“We have been able to save lives as much as we can and really change our approach to make sure people have what they need when they take substances and they have a quality of life.”

Is residential rehab the answer?

The Scottish government’s strategy to get a grip on the ongoing emergency is funding more residential rehabilitation facilities.

Ministers aim to increase bed capacity to 650 and ensure there are at least 1,000 publicly funded placements.

Nestled in the rural fields of Fyvie, Aberdeenshire is the Sunnybrae rehab unit.

It is a Christian programme where addicts enrol for 12 months on a strict regime of Bible-based learning and counselling to rebuild their lives.

Mobile phones are banned and residents are weaned off all substances – including tobacco – in as little as two weeks.

Leaders said more than 450 people have taken part in the abstinence model over the past 20 years.

None of the current participants were directly referred by the NHS, they are all “self-referrals” who complete a Sunnybrae application process.

The unit has received more than £700,000 of taxpayer funds.

Paul Beaton, course supervisor, also revealed their internal data suggests more than half of residents either relapse back into their old life or are unaccounted for.

He said: “People come to us with pretty much every area of their lives broken, physically, mentally, emotionally, financially.

“We help them get to the root causes to give them healing, peace and freedom from the issues that drive them to substances in the first place.

“We really focus on them having a strong ‘move on’ plan for the end. We really work hard to set them up for the win. Our success rate, the number of people going on to lead clean, free, sober lives is 45%. Which is great.”

Some experts in the drug recovery sector believe other rehab models are more effective.

Kirsten Horsburgh, from the Scottish Drugs Forum, said: “We are supportive of residential rehab being available when they want it. Pushing people towards an abstinence situation is not helpful because it can increase people’s risk. Abstinence should be available but it’s not a superior approach.

“Having services available for people when they want to stop using drugs is important but it’s not an emergency response and that is often missing from these conversations.”

The latest official figures revealing the most up-to-date drugs death toll in Scotland will be revealed on Tuesday.

UK

Prince Andrew insisted on ‘gag order’ to stop allegations spoiling Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, memoir claims

Published

6 hours ago

October 18, 2025

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Prince Andrew insisted on 'gag order' to stop allegations spoiling Queen's Platinum Jubilee, memoir claims

Prince Andrew insisted his accuser, Virginia Giuffre, sign a one-year gag order – to prevent details of her allegations tarnishing the late Queen’s platinum jubilee, her memoirs have claimed.

Andrew relinquished his Duke of York title and remaining honours on Friday evening.

It came after discussions with King Charles, in consultation with the Prince of Wales, both of whom wanted to bring an end to the long-lasting scandal.

But, according to The Telegraph, Ms Giuffre’s book, which is due out on Tuesday, is focusing further attention on the sexual assault allegations and the prince’s friendship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, which led to the royal’s downfall.

She tells how Andrew’s “disastrous” Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis was like an “injection of jet fuel” for her legal team, and it raised the possibility of “subpoenaing” his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, and daughters Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie and drawing them into the legal case.

The Telegraph also reports Ms Giuffre’s claims that she got “more out of” Andrew than a reported £12m payout and $2m (around £1.4m) donation to her charity because she had “an acknowledgement that I and many other women had been victimised and a tacit pledge to never deny it again”.

The former duke paid to settle a civil sexual assault case with Ms Giuffre in 2022, despite insisting he had never met her.

Ms Giuffre alleged she was forced to have sex with the prince when she was 17, after being trafficked by Epstein. Andrew continues to vehemently deny her allegations.

Queen Elizabeth II was celebrating her platinum jubilee in 2022 – the first British monarch to reach the milestone – as the civil case against her son was gathering pace.

It was settled nine days after she reached the 70th anniversary of her accession.

According to the Telegraph, Ms Giuffre, who died in April, reveals in her book: “I agreed to a one-year gag order, which seemed important to the prince because it ensured that his mother’s platinum jubilee would not be tarnished any more than it already had been.”

In January 2022, a US judge ruled the civil case against Andrew could go ahead, and the Queen went on to strip him of his honorary military roles, with the prince also giving up his HRH style.

‘Devastating’ interview

His 2019 Newsnight interview, which he hoped would clear his name, backfired when he said he “did not regret” his friendship with convicted paedophile Epstein, who trafficked Ms Giuffre.

Andrew also said he had “no recollection” of ever meeting Ms Giuffre and added he could not have had sex with her in March 2001 because he was at Pizza Express with his daughter Beatrice on the day in question.

Ms Giuffre, whose book is called Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice, wrote, according to The Telegraph: “As devastating as this interview was for Prince Andrew, for my legal team it was like an injection of jet fuel.

“Its contents would not only help us build an ironclad case against the prince but also open the door to potentially subpoenaing his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, and their daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.”

‘Amazed he was stupid enough’

She also told how Andrew had “stonewalled” her legal team for months before settlement discussions began moving very quickly when his deposition was scheduled for March 2022.

Ms Giuffre also wrote she was “amazed” that a member of the royal family would be “stupid enough” to appear in public with the convicted paedophile, after a photo of the pair walking in New York emerged.

Andrew, who remains a prince and continues to live in the Crown Estate property Royal Lodge, said on Friday the “continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the royal family”.

He insisted he was putting his “family and country first” and would stop using “my title or the honours which have been conferred upon me”.

UK

Why William and Camilla likely had influential roles in decision over Prince Andrew’s titles

Published

6 hours ago

October 18, 2025

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Why William and Camilla likely had influential roles in decision over Prince Andrew's titles

It’s not the first seismic statement I’ve had to deal with from the Royal Family late into the evening.

But what I have learnt from past experience is that when they do come in this way, it’s because the decision has been made to act now and act fast.

Which inevitably has us all wondering, why now?

The latest stories about Prince Andrew and his email to Jeffrey Epstein were again a sign of just how close he’d been to the convicted paedophile, and an extract released from the late Virginia Giuffre’s book was heartbreaking and excruciatingly seedy.

And yes, the full book is released on Tuesday.

But in some ways, we have heard a lot of these lurid details before, albeit allegations that Prince Andrew denies.

Which is why it feels like this time, the family had just had enough.

It’s framed as a personal statement from Andrew, but the involvement of his relatives could not be any clearer: “In discussion with the King, and my immediate and wider family,” he writes, followed up by, “with His Majesty’s agreement, we feel I must now go a step further”.

It has always been hard to get a full picture of how much the King has engaged in the problems with his brother.

Speak to those who know the family well and they’ll tell you our current monarch “doesn’t like confrontation”, just like Queen Elizabeth II.

And while there has always remained “a warm familial feeling between the two brothers” which we’ve seen through Andrew’s appearance at family events, it is “tempered by the King’s responsibilities as head of state to be entirely separate from the perceived, real or alleged activities of the Duke of York”.

In the end, as head of the institution, and not as his brother, the King would have had to lead the discussions about the Andrew problem, but I suspect with heavy involvement from his eldest son and wife.

William, only in recent weeks, has told us there will be change when he becomes monarch, his advisors stressing he isn’t afraid to question why the Royal Family continues to do things in a certain way.

His very visible unease at standing next to Prince Andrew at the Duchess of Kent’s funeral showed us how uncomfortable he felt about his uncle being there at such a public moment.

His involvement in those discussions behind the scenes and making sure the institution was seen to be taking action against Andrew is likely to have been considerable.

I know that Queen Camilla is also a quiet but hugely powerful influence behind palace walls.

She is her husband’s listening ear, sounding board, but also not afraid to tell him when she believes there needs to be change.

Her own work to break taboos around sexual violence and encourage survivors to speak out must have made it even more difficult for her to read the stories about Andrew’s links to Epstein, and the sexual allegations against her brother-in-law, even though he has always vehemently denied them.

And then there are those closest to the Prince.

You have to have sympathy with his daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie. Did they tell their father that he needed to do something for their sake to try and shut down the noise?

His ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, has also been burned in recent weeks by her association with Epstein – a spectre who, despite his death, has continued to haunt the royal family.

So what of Prince Andrew? How will this impact him?

Any sense he might have a chance at returning to some kind of public life has truly evaporated. We wait to see if, with time, he is again allowed to appear at least for family occasions.

I’ve always been told “he is robust and self-contained and always has been”.

Interpret that how you will – arrogance that he could ride it out, or a very strongly-held conviction that he has never done anything wrong?

Either way, he clearly believes he has been unfairly punished by the court of public opinion.

One thing a source did tell me is that there is a sense he’s never really needed the affirmation of his family.

He may not need their emotional support, but in the end, we have again seen how no member of the family is bigger than the institution.

Protecting the reputation of “the firm” has to come first.

Prince Andrew may feel that he has done the right thing, even done his family a favour, by personally relinquishing the use of his titles and honours, but this, in the end, was not just his choice.

No longer to be known as HRH or the Duke of York, he is now Prince Andrew only – ultimately forced to fall on his sword by his own family.

UK

Everything we know about Prince Andrew’s titles decision

Published

6 hours ago

October 18, 2025

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Everything we know about Prince Andrew's titles decision

Prince Andrew has announced he is giving up his royal titles, including the Duke of York.

The decision is understood to have been made in close consultation with King Charles and other members of the Royal Family.

Prince Andrew said continued accusations against him were distracting from the King’s work.

He had been accused by Virginia Giuffre, who died in April, of sexual assault. He denies this.

Which titles is he giving up?

Prince Andrew is giving up his Duke of York title. Sky News understands this will be immediate.

He will also give up his knighthood as a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) and his Garter role as a Royal Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter.

He will retain the dukedom, which can only be removed by an Act of Parliament, but will not use it.

Prince Andrew will also remain a prince, as the son of Queen Elizabeth II.

Why is this happening now?

Ms Giuffre, who was one of billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s victims, alleged Prince Andrew sexually assaulted her on three occasions when she was 17, and sued him in 2021.

In her posthumous memoir Nobody’s Girl, due to be published on Tuesday, she alleged he was “entitled” and “believed having sex with me was his birthright”.

Prince Andrew has always denied the allegations.

He has also always claimed that a well-known image of them together was doctored. Before her death, which her family said was by suicide, the case was settled outside of court for a sum believed to have been around £12m.

Ms Giuffre’s posthumous memoir goes on sale a week after an email emerged showing Andrew told Epstein “we are in this together”.

The email was reportedly sent three months after he said he had stopped contact with the convicted sex offender.

On Friday evening, the US House Oversight Committee also released documents from Epstein’s estate showing “Prince Andrew” listed as a passenger on the financier’s private jet – the so-called Lolita Express – from Luton to Edinburgh in 2006, alongside Ghislaine Maxwell.

He was also listed on another flight to West Palm Beach, Florida, in 2000.

The flight logs have been reported on for years but the release may have added to pressure.

“The situation has become untenable and intolerable, and this week in particular, the tipping point had been reached,” said royal correspondent Laura Bundock.

It is understood that the changes will take effect immediately.

The Giuffre family has called for the King to go further and “remove the title of Prince”.

Prince Andrew’s decision to relinquish his titles also comes following increased pressure over his relationship with an alleged Chinese spy.

Will this affect his ex-wife and daughters?

Sky News understands that Andrew will continue to live at the Windsor Estate at the Royal Lodge. His ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, will also remain living at the Royal Lodge.

But for the second year running, he will not attend the Royal Family’s annual Christmas celebrations at Sandringham, it is understood.

Andrew’s ex-wife will also no longer use her Duchess of York title.

She was dropped by numerous charities last month after it emerged that she wrote to convicted sex offender Epstein, calling him a “supreme friend”, despite publicly disowning him in the media.

The decision over Andrew’s titles will not impact on the position of his daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, it is understood.

Sky News royal correspondent Rhiannon Mills says the move may not stop the influx of negative stories about him.

She said: “This ends the questions on what more the monarch could do to show how the family felt about the accusations, the upset and the embarrassment caused.

“Will it stop the stories, the allegations and the interest in Prince Andrew? That is far less certain. But in what is the prince’s first public statement since that ill-fated Newsnight interview in 2019, it is striking that he signs it off by saying, ‘I vigorously deny the accusations against me’.”

What did Prince Andrew say in his statement?

In his statement, Prince Andrew said: “In discussion with The King, and my immediate and wider family, we have concluded the continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the Royal Family.

“I have decided, as I always have, to put my duty to my family and country first. I stand by my decision five years ago to stand back from public life.

“With His Majesty’s agreement, we feel I must now go a step further. I will therefore no longer use my title or the honours which have been conferred upon me.

“As I have said previously, I vigorously deny the accusations against me.”

Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.