The number of people who died due to drug misuse in Scotland has increased.
Data from National Records of Scotland (NRS) showed there were a total of 1,172 deaths due to drug misuse in 2023 – a rise of 121 (12%) on the previous year.
This is the second-lowest number of drug misuse deaths since 2017, with 2022 seeing the lowest number (1,051).
The record high was in 2020, when 1,339 people died.
Key points:
• Drug misuse deaths are still much more common than they were in 2000. After adjusting for age, the rate of deaths were 4.2 times as high in 2023 than 2000. • In 2023, males (805) were twice as likely to have a drug misuse death as females (367).
• Since 2000, the average age of drug misuse deaths has increased from 32 to 45.
• People in the most deprived areas of Scotland are more than 15 times as likely to die from drug misuse compared to people in the least deprived areas. • After adjusting for age, Glasgow City and Dundee City had the highest rates of drug misuse deaths while East Renfrewshire and East Dunbartonshire had the lowest. • For the period 2019-2023, Glasgow had the highest rate of drug misuse deaths with 44.6 deaths per 100,000 people. • The rate of drug misuse death was above the Scotland average in Glasgow, Dundee, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire, West Dunbartonshire, East Ayrshire, Renfrewshire and North Lanarkshire. • The most common type of drugs implicated in drug misuse deaths in 2023 were opiates/opioids which were implicated in 80% of all deaths. • There were 23 deaths linked to nitazenes, up from one death the year before. These super strength street opiates have been linked to thousands of deaths in the US in recent years.
• The majority (88%) of drug misuse deaths were classified as accidental poisonings, with only 7% ruled as intentional self-poisonings. • The rate of drug poisoning deaths in Scotland was more than double the rates of other UK countries in 2022. The rate was 2.7 times as high as the rates for England and Northern Ireland, and 2.1 times as high as the rate in Wales. • Scotland continues to experience a higher death toll from drugs than any country in Europe, at 277 deaths per million 15-64-year-olds. In comparison, it is nearly three times higher than the next worse affected European country, Ireland, which had a drugs death rate of 97 per million in the most recent comparable figures for 2020.
Last year, plans were approved for the UK’s first facility for the safer consumption of illegal drugs to help tackle the crisis.
The proposed pilot scheme will be based at Hunter Street Health Centre in Glasgow and will allow users to take their own drugs under the supervision of trained health professionals.
Safer drug consumption facilities (SDCFs) are backed by the Scottish government as a way to reduce the harms associated with drug use in public areas.
Heath Secretary Neil Gray accepted the number of drug-related deaths remains “hugely concerning”.
He said: “We’re taking a wide range of actions through our £250m National Mission on drugs, including opening a safer drug consumption facility pilot, working towards the opening of drug-checking facilities and widening access to life-saving naloxone.
“We will also continue to improve access to residential rehab, where we’re on track to meet our target for additional placements, and drive the rollout of medication-assisted treatment (MAT) standards to make treatment and support available more quickly.
“Despite this unwelcome rise, I believe that National Mission action has led to much being achieved in a short space of time, with projects delivered on an unprecedented scale making a real difference to people.
“We will intensify our efforts and are also working hard to respond to the growing threat from highly dangerous, super-strong synthetic opioids like nitazenes in an increasingly toxic and unpredictable drug supply.”
The UK is on a “slippery slope towards death on demand”, according to the justice secretary ahead of a historic Commons vote on assisted dying.
In a letter to her constituents, Shabana Mahmood said she was “profoundly concerned” about the legislation.
“Sadly, recent scandals – such as Hillsborough, infected blood and the Post Office Horizon – have reminded us that the state and those acting on its behalf are not always benign,” she wrote.
“I have always held the view that, for this reason, the state should serve a clear role. It should protect and preserve life, not take it away.
“The state should never offer death as a service.”
On 29 November, MPs will be asked to consider whether to legalise assisted dying, through Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
14:46
Minister ‘leans’ to assisted dying bill
Details of the legislation were published last week, including confirmation the medicine that will end a patient’s life will need to be self-administered and people must be terminally ill and expected to die within six months.
Ms Mahmood, however, said “predictions about life expectancy are often inaccurate”.
Advertisement
“Doctors can only predict a date of death, with any real certainty, in the final days of life,” she said. “The judgment as to who can and cannot be considered for assisted suicide will therefore be subjective and imprecise.”
Under the Labour MP’s proposals, two independent doctors must confirm a patient is eligible for assisted dying and a High Court judge must give their approval.
The bill will also include punishments of up to 14 years in prison for those who break the law, including coercing someone into ending their own life.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
However, Ms Mahmood said she was concerned the legislation could “pressure” some into ending their lives.
“It cannot be overstated what a profound shift in our culture assisted suicide will herald,” she wrote.
“In my view, the greatest risk of all is the pressure the elderly, vulnerable, sick or disabled may place upon themselves.”
Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, who put forward the bill, said some of the points Ms Mahmood raised have been answered “in the the thorough drafting and presentation of the bill”.
“The strict eligibility criteria make it very clear that we are only talking about people who are already dying,” she said.
“That is why the bill is called the ‘Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill’; its scope cannot be changed and clearly does not include any other group of people.
“The bill would give dying people the autonomy, dignity and choice to shorten their death if they wish.”
In response to concerns Ms Mahmood raised about patients being coerced into choosing assisted death, Ms Leadbeater said she has consulted widely with doctors and judges.
“Those I have spoken to tell me that they are well equipped to ask the right questions to detect coercion and to ascertain a person’s genuine wishes. It is an integral part of their work,” she said.
In an increasingly fractious debate around the topic, multiple Labour MPs have voiced their concerns.
In a letter to ministers on 3 October, the Cabinet Secretary Simon Case confirmed “the Prime Minister has decided to set aside collective responsibility on the merits of this bill” and that the government would “therefore remain neutral on the passage of the Bill and on the matter of assisted dying”.
“Immediate action” is being taken after blueprints of jail layouts were shared online.
The maps detailing the layouts of prisons in England and Wales were leaked on the dark web over the past fortnight, according to The Times.
The detailed information is said to include the locations of cameras and sensors, prompting fears they could be used to smuggle drugs or weapons into prisons or help inmates plan escapes.
Security officials are now working to identify the source of the leak and who might benefit from the details.
The Ministry of Justice did not disclose which prisons were involved in the breach.
A government spokesperson said in a statement: “We are not going to comment on the specific detail of security matters of this kind, but we are aware of a breach of data to the prison estate and, like with all potential breaches, have taken immediate action to ensure prisons remain secure.”
The leak comes amid a chronic prison overcrowding crisis, which has led to early release schemes and the re-categorising of the security risks of some offenders to ease capacity pressures.
The UK will “set out a path” to lift defence spending to 2.5% of national income in the spring, the prime minister has said, finally offering a timeframe for an announcement on the long-awaited hike after mounting criticism.
Sir Keir Starmer gave the date during a phone call with Mark Rutte, the secretary general of NATO, in the wake of threats by Moscow to target UK and US military facilities following a decision by London and Washington to let Ukraine fire their missiles inside Russia.
There was no clarity though on when the 2.5% level will be achieved. The UK says it currently spends around 2.3% of GDP on defence.
A spokeswoman for Downing Street said that the two men “began by discussing the situation in Ukraine and reiterated the importance of putting the country in the strongest possible position going into the winter”.
They also talked about the deployment of thousands of North Korean soldiers to fight alongside Russia.
“The prime minister underscored the need for all NATO countries to step up in support of our collective defence and updated on the government’s progress on the strategic defence review,” the spokeswoman said.
“His government would set out the path to 2.5% in the spring.”
The defence review will also be published in the spring.
While a date for an announcement on 2.5% will be welcomed by the Ministry of Defence, analysts have long warned that such an increase is still well below the amount that is needed to rebuild the armed forces after decades of decline to meet growing global threats from Russia, an increasingly assertive China, North Korea and Iran.
They say the UK needs to be aiming to hit at least 3% – probably higher.
With Donald Trump returning to the White House, there will be significantly more pressure on the UK and other European NATO allies to accelerate increases in defence spending.