Drugs continue to kill in Scotland. In 2023, 1,172 deaths were attributed to drugs in this northern country of the United Kingdom heavily affected by drug use. And the latest figures published on Tuesday, August 20, show that the scourge of drugs is far from over in this European country which has the highest rate of overdose deaths among its neighbors. Indeed, new data published by the Scottish statistics body shows a 12% increase in overdose deaths compared to 2022, ending the decline that began since the record in 2020 (1,339 deaths), indicated the Scottish statistics body (NRS).
After two years of decline, the number of drug deaths in Scotland started to rise again last year. Scotland, a British nation of five million inhabitants, is ranked according to some studies as the European territory with the highest drug-related mortality. Within the United Kingdom, this mortality rate is 2.7 times higher in Scotland than in England. These deaths mainly concern men and, more than for any other cause, they are closely linked to poverty: inhabitants of the most deprived areas are 15 times more likely to die from an overdose than those in the most affluent areas.
More than 80% of deaths occur after the use of several types of drugs. In 80% of cases, these are opiates such as heroin or methadone, the most deadly substances in Scotland since 2008, but the NRS notes the sharp increase in deaths linked to the benzodiazepine, an anxiolytic (58%), ahead of cocaine (41%).
Scotland’s heroin crisis burst onto the international scene in 1996 with Danny Boyle’s film “Trainspotting”, set in Edinburgh. In recent years, the Scottish government has tried to step up its fight against drug use, and last year’s rise was described as “extremely worrying” by Health Minister Neil Gray.
“We will step up our efforts and are working hard to respond to the growing threat posed by highly dangerous and highly potent synthetic opioids such as nitazene,” he added in a statement. 500 times more potent than morphine, nitazene is a synthetic opioid that is among the new synthetics. The substance is sometimes mixed by traffickers and cut with heroin, a cocktail that Scottish drug users often consume without knowing it.
This article is originally published on .liberation.fr
