The number of people who died from using drugs in Dundee has fallen by five in 2021 - the second such fall in the city in recent years.
A total of 52 drug-related deaths were recorded for last year, down from 57 in 2020, and a further fall from a recent peak of 72 in 2019. Opiates and opioids such as heroin and methadone were implicated in 48 out of the 52 deaths and so-called "street benzos" - benzodiazepine drugs of varying strengths - were implicated in 40.
Dundee still holds the undesirable title of the drugs deaths capital of Scotland - with an average of 45.2 deaths per 100,000 people every year over the last five years, more than twice the Scottish average and higher than any other council area. Between 2000 and 2004, the average was just 5.9 deaths per 100,000 each year.
Local drug workers have reacted with horror to the fact the decrease has not been more dramatic. All but one of the drug deaths were deemed to be an accidental overdose.
Kirsty Nelson, a parish nurse who helps drug users from the city's Steeple Church, said: "Horrific. I actually have no words. When will we see the change we all know is needed?
"My heart breaks for all those families affected. Every single one of these was preventable."
Drug researcher Andrew McAuley said: "Scotland's drug problems run deep, almost every metric we have confirms that. The drug-related death statistics are a sobering reminder of how much work there is to do to turn around what remains clearly a public health emergency."
Figures on drug deaths are collected by the National Records of Scotland (NRS). Julie Ramsay, vital events statistician, said there was greater drug use in areas affected by poverty.
She said: “Drug deaths have increased substantially over the past few decades. There were more than five times as many deaths in 2021 compared with 1996. 2021 is the first year since 2013 that drug misuse deaths have not increased.
“In 2021, after adjusting for age, people in the most deprived areas were more than 15 times as likely to have a drug misuse death as those in the least deprived areas. This ratio has widened over the past two decades.”
The figures come a day after a street artist drew attention to Dundee's drugs plight with a new mural in the city centre. The Rebel Bear, known for creating politically charged street art, created an image of a William Wallace-esque man in a kilt collapsed in the street with a needle in his arm.
The work has appeared in Bell Street car park, next to the Tayside Drug Problem Services building.
The artist told the PA news agency it was his "comment on Scotland having the highest drug death rate in Europe". He added: "How many good men and women have we lost due to addiction?
"How many potential leaders and heroes have fallen through the cracks due to neglect and a lack of care? It would appear that Scotland has a new battle to fight."
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