Scotland’s rate of drug deaths remains almost three times higher than that for the UK as a whole, and nearly three-and-a-half times higher than England’s. The latest figures, of 20 misuse of drugs deaths per 100,000 inhabitants in 2022, are shameful, in spite of the fact that they show a large fall from the year before. The situation in urban Scotland is far worse. Glasgow’s rate is 44 deaths per 100,000. Dundee’s is 43, Inverclyde’s 38. In the most economically deprived areas, there were 52 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants last year; in the most affluent, the figure was only three.
So far, so grimly familiar. Scotland’s drugs problems, especially in areas of high deprivation and deindustrialisation, are not a new discovery. Yet, in spite of the substantial improvement in 2022, the lethal effects have got worse since the millennium, not better. Taking the age of the population into account, there were still 3.7 times more drug misuse deaths in Scotland in 2022 than there were in 2000. Preliminary figures this year suggest the rate may be creeping up again. The problem is not under control.
