Scotland saw more drug-related deaths than any other European Union country in 2018, after a 27 per cent increase in a single year brought the total to its highest level since records began 23 years ago.
Only 40 per cent of people with a drug problem are currently in treatment in Scotland, due in part to waiting times of up to six months and a focus on abstinence rather than harm reduction.
The figures raised “serious concerns” about Scotland’s response to opioid addiction, suggesting that 50 per cent of people in treatment were being prescribed methadone doses lower than the World Health Organisation’s minimum recommendation. “If people are not getting the substitute medication dose they require then it is no wonder they ‘top up’ with street drugs and get involved in polydrug use,” he said.
“Some people misrepresent the evidence by claiming that methadone is causing these deaths,” said Zoe Carre, policy researcher at Release, a national drugs charity offering legal advice and support. “This is wrong, not least because prescribing methadone as an opioid substitute is one of the most evidence-based ways of preventing premature death. “This also ignores the fact that most of these deaths involved one or more opioids, such as heroin/morphine or methadone, which suggests that some people are being let down by drug treatment, for example if they are not being prescribed optimal doses of methadone.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/scotland-drug-deaths-highest-eu-heroin-cocaine-a9006811.html
The National Records of Scotland statistics show 1,187 people died taking drugs last year, bringing the death rate to triple that of England and Wales, and making it higher even than the US, which is in the grip of an opioid crisis.
The majority of deaths involved more than one substance, with heroin and other opiates a factor in 86 per cent of fatalities and “street” benzodiazepines like etizolam, which have flooded the market in recent years, seen in 57 per cent of recorded deaths.
“Scotland’s record drug deaths are an avoidable tragedy, and the failure of politicians in Westminster and Holyrood to act is simply shameful,” said James Nicholls, CEO of drug reform charity Transform. “This crisis is a consequence of policies they support, and continue to impose, despite deaths increasing year after year. Bereaved families may wonder why the UK drugs minister won’t visit Scotland to better understand why their loved ones died, or appear before Scottish MPs to justify her government’s failed approach.”Only 40 per cent of people with a drug problem are currently in treatment in Scotland, due in part to waiting times of up to six months and a focus on abstinence rather than harm reduction.
The figures raised “serious concerns” about Scotland’s response to opioid addiction, suggesting that 50 per cent of people in treatment were being prescribed methadone doses lower than the World Health Organisation’s minimum recommendation. “If people are not getting the substitute medication dose they require then it is no wonder they ‘top up’ with street drugs and get involved in polydrug use,” he said.
“Some people misrepresent the evidence by claiming that methadone is causing these deaths,” said Zoe Carre, policy researcher at Release, a national drugs charity offering legal advice and support. “This is wrong, not least because prescribing methadone as an opioid substitute is one of the most evidence-based ways of preventing premature death. “This also ignores the fact that most of these deaths involved one or more opioids, such as heroin/morphine or methadone, which suggests that some people are being let down by drug treatment, for example if they are not being prescribed optimal doses of methadone.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/scotland-drug-deaths-highest-eu-heroin-cocaine-a9006811.html
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