Scotland remains drugs death capital of Europe for the seventh year in a row - as deadly synthetic opioids crisis grips the country
Scotland has been named the drugs death capital of Europe for the seventh year in a row as a deadly synthetic opioids crisis grips the country.
There were 1,017 drug misuse deaths in Scotland last year, new figures from the National Records of Scotland have shown.
The number of fatalities have fallen to their lowest levels in eight years and dropped by 13 per cent compared to 2023.
However, Scotland's drugs death rate - which is 191 per one million people - remains the worst in Europe.
According to the most recent European data, the next highest rate was Estonia with 135 deaths per million people in 2023.
The decline in drug deaths in Scotland follows last year's 12 per cent rise that saw deaths climb to 1,172.
Glasgow City, Dundee City and Inverclyde council areas had the highest rates of drug misuse deaths in the period 2020 to 2024.
Scotland's most deprived areas were 12 times more likely to experience drug deaths than the richer parts of the country, the figures also showed.
Scotland has been named the drugs death capital of Europe for the seventh year in a row as a deadly synthetic opioids crisis grips the country (file photo)
First Minister of Scotland John Swinney is seen at Edinburgh Waverley station on September 1
Kirsten Horsburgh, chief executive of the Scottish Drugs Forum said the arrival of deadly synthetic opioids known as nitazenes was 'a crisis on top of a crisis'.
The drugs, which were first created in the 1950s as opioid painkillers, can reach up to 2,000 times the potency of heroin.
The statistics show the most common drugs implicated in the deaths in Scotland last year were opiates and opioids (80 per cent), benzodiazepines (56 per cent) and cocaine (47 per cent).
More than nine out of 10 (91 per cent) drug misuse deaths were classified as accidental poisonings, with six per cent classed as intentional self-poisonings.
The rate of drug poisoning deaths in Scotland in 2023 was around two to three times the rate of other UK countries.
While deaths involving opiates and opioids, and benzodiazepines decreased last year, deaths which implicated cocaine remained at their highest level on record, with 479 deaths for the second consecutive year.
Phillipa Haxton, head of vital events statistics at National Records of Scotland, said: 'These statistics show a decrease in drug misuse deaths over the last year and represent the lowest number of deaths in the last seven years.
'The longer term trend shows that drug misuse deaths are still much more common than they were two decades ago.
Pictured: A drugs den near a recycling centre in a Morrisons car park in the East End of Glasgow
The Thistle drugs consumption room at the NHS Enhanced Drug Treatment Facility at Hunter Street Health Centre in Glasgow opened earlier this year
Pictured: An area used for drugs consumption near to the new Thistle Centre in Glasgow
'The statistics also provide information about the people who died of a drug misuse death.
'The figures show us that males continue to be more than twice as likely to have a drug misuse death as females.'
Earlier this year, the first legal 'shooting gallery' - a £2.3million centre for drug addicts to take heroin and cocaine under medical supervision - opened its doors in Scotland.
The Thistle Centre in Glasgow provides a space where drug users to take illegal substances under supervision in a clean and hygienic environment.
It was hoped by the Scottish Government that those who attend the pilot facility can be encouraged to seek support to overcome their addiction.
Staff are also able to assist anyone who suffers an overdose, and those taking drugs at the centre will be free from the threat of arrest.
The centre was established after Scotland's top prosecutor, Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC, made clear prosecuting users of such a facility for possession of drugs would not be in the public interest.
Speaking during a tour of the facility First Minister John Swinney said: 'I hope it will help us to reduce drugs deaths in Scotland and to help people to find a different route in their lives.
'We will evaluate the effectiveness of this particular intervention to determine what progress is achieved as a consequence of it, what impact it has had, and to learn the lessons from it.'
The Thistle drugs consumption room at the NHS Enhanced Drug Treatment Facility at Hunter Street Health Centre in Glasgow
Nitazenes appear in a variety of forms - some are bought, often by drug dealers, as pure pills.
Others are found after being cut into illegal drugs such as heroin or traditionally legal medications like Valium and Xanax - or simply sold under those brand names without having any original product in them at all.
Dr Philip Berry, a consultant focusing on the international drug trade, said of nitazenes: 'It's uncertain how this problem will develop, but in the short term, it is likely criminal groups will continue to embed nitazenes into the UK market.
'Ministers and officials from across government are prioritising tackling this issue.
'This has the potential to get worse.'
Steve Rolles, a senior policy analyst at the Transform Drug Policy Foundation said: 'Fentanyl and nitazenes are very similar. They are both synthetic opioids, he added.
'We are talking about a family of drugs. Nitazene is not a single drug, there is a whole group of them.
'They are all extremely potent and dangerous but they are all quite different. It can be many thousands of times stronger than heroin.
'When the dosage is unknown or it's used as an adulterant then less than a grain of sand can be enough to kill you.
'Pharmacy drugs are incredibly regulated. Illegal drugs are not. You don't know how much is in your heroin or [illegally purchased] Xanax.
'The gap between the effective dose and overdose [in NSOs] is very small.'
