Addicted Scotland

Scotland has the highest death rate from drugs in Europe, with 934 fatalities recorded in 2017  which is set to top 1000 this year. That’s more than double 2007’s figure of 455.

David Liddell, director of the Scottish Drugs Forum (SDF), said: “We are in absolute crisis in terms of the number of people dying. It’s sadly taken this level of deaths for people to really start taking notice of the issue...We shouldn’t be writing people off. The new strategy must send that message, particularly in the case of overdose deaths, that they are all essentially preventable.” Liddell continued, “As a society, we should have much more compassion for our most vulnerable, who are victims of society themselves. What we want is to keep people alive so they can recover.”

Kirsten Horsburgh, SDF strategy coordinator for drug death prevention, said: “We need to see the number of drug-related deaths in Scotland as a public health emergency. If we were talking about almost 1000 people dying of other preventable causes every year, there would be a public outcry and there would be a full-systems approach to address the issue. This is everybody’s business and it needs attention. It’s a national travesty.” She added: “Stigma silences people and stops them accessing help. It’s seen as some kind of lifestyle choice, which is a lazy moral option.”

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/scotland-absolute-crisis-highest-rate-13144332