This is a crisis with deep roots in the social and economic changes which swept through Scotland in the latter half of the 20th Century as the country's economy shifted away from manufacturing.

Hmm. I wonder what political movements could have caused this?!

by Red_Brummy

34 comments

  2. It’s shite being Scottish!
    We’re the lowest of the low!
    The scum of the fucking Earth!
    The most wretched, miserable, servile, pathetic trash, that was shat into civilisation!
    Some people hate the English, I don’t! They’re just wankers!
    WE, on the other hand are colonised by wankers.
    Can’t even find a decent culture to be colonised by!
    We’re ruled by effete arseholes!
    It’s a shite state of affairs to be in Tommy,
    and all the fresh air in the world won’t make any fucking difference!

  3. It is sad that many won’t read this as it’s a pretty good summation of the issue at hand and answers popular myths often quoted to explain the increase.

  4. Legalize weed, create jobs that way, grab taxes and put taxes into prevention programmes. It could be so easy for the government to tackle this problem.

  5. I thought the facilitation room was supposed to help with that…. I guess not. Shocker.

    And regarding what you said about political movements, everyone has free will, drugs don’t take themselves and it’s one of the first things you learn at school not to do.

  6. The SNP has totally failed to get a grip of the matter. They need to be held accountable.

  7. They oughta make those things illegal. Bet that’d sort it.

  9. >*^(Men, he said, viewed themselves as “victims of blind economic forces beyond their control” leading to a “feeling of despair and hopelessness that pervades people who feel with justification that they have no real say in shaping or determining their own destinies.” One way alienation found expression, said Reid, was in “those who seek to escape permanently from the reality of society through intoxicants and narcotics.”)*

    Jimmy Reid’s describing my Da’s generation, the hardest-drinking (and smoking) bastards I’ve ever known

    All of whom came of age at a time when they could quit a job on Friday and start a new one on Monday

    They bought their council houses for tuppence and retired on the sort of pensions that don’t exist anymore

    Social conditions and economic prospects *definitely* exacerbate substance abuse problems

    But there’s also something about us that means we need to get blackout-wasted, on drugs we know are killing us

  10. Yet more people in England die of overdoes, just another Scotland bad story. Scotland has 5 million people, England has over 60 million yet you all believe Scotland has more drug deaths, dont be nieve.

  11. Maybe I’m simplifyin it too much, but Scotland drug culture is absolutely intertwined with our alcohol abuse. If we solve Poverty, I really believe we saves thousands of lifes

  12. sure, if you open a first place in the uk, where you can “legally” take drugs, junkies heaven, it is ridiculous, it is rewarding them and incentivizing, hell even encouraging to take more, joke

  13. Every Western country has deindustralised some to a lesser extent, some to a greater extent. Areas in America where there is significant Scottish heritage (e.g. Appalachia) have similar issues. People get so soaked up in propaganda they can’t even understand the world around them.

    I’d be interested to see the cultural heritage of the people who are suffering most from this. If you look at native Americans and aboriginal Australians you can see that tribal cultures often seem to have issues with addiction when absorbed into urban cultures. While we may not think about it this way in my mind there are parallels to highland Scots.

  14. The whole thing with drug deaths in Scotland is that we can do nothing about them while the power around laws and policies lies solely with Westminster.

    It’s such a braindead mentality around drugs in Westminster. If it was legalised/decriminalised you could sort out so many problems, create jobs, educate users on the drugs they’re taking, stop it being so taboo. Imagine cutting the legs out from under the drug dealers, sell directly from dispensaries with the caveat being that they have to use a safe drug room, that then opens up the dialogue with the user and allows for conversations and potential to rehabilitate drug users and get them clean.

    It just doesn’t make sense to shit on Scotlands drug deaths while it’s controlled by Westminster in England.

  15. Wonder if any studies have been done to try and understand the underlying causes, I suspect it’s primarily cultural and so a tough one to try and fix.

  16. A lot of the problems are historic. If you look at the demography of drug deaths, they’re quite a bit older, often approaching pensionable age. The brutality of 1980s deindustrialisation together with improved supply lines of heroin was a dreadful mix and has had a brutal legacy decades later.

    Many of the the drug deaths are from that generation’s cumulative health issues catching up.

    I don’t want to say all is lost on that front but I fear we aren’t reversing that.

    What is really worrying to me is the emergence of fentanyl (and other synth opioids). Everyone has seen the damage it has wreaked in North America.

    It came home to me with someone I vaguely knew (and his partner) in LA. Working in entertainment industry (not famous, the boring finance bit, but successful all the same). 10k runs, good diet, healthy living, stereotypical insta California sunshine avo and eggs for the most part. Not partying very often at all but going out now and again. Got given some coke at a party, a minute quantity of fentanyl in it, both died, their hearts just stopped. Make no mistake that is coming here.

    I don’t want to sound like an old man ‘you don’t what shite is in it’ but when it’s synth opioids, all it takes is a tiny amount. And that’s you. One cheeky line from the wrong batch and it’s goodnight.

    They’re cheap, they’re a good bulking agent that can be mixed with anything else for giving stuff a dunt, they’re indistinguishable to the eye from other white powders.

  17. We will hit 10 years at the unenviable top spot unless the UK government start to take this seriously. There are countries who have successfully turned this around and we should be following their example. Perpetually fighting a lost war on drugs only has one consequence.

  18. The two charities in the article were really interesting and made some points that were spot on.

    We know the problem and the reasons and almost how to fix it but we are doing it wrong.

    The Scottish Ministers need to listen to these people and give these people the power to fix it short term.

    Longer term we need economic change which is certainly something Holyrood should focus on. But not more hand outs, these people need jobs, security and a purpose in life.

  19. Westminster holds all relevant drug powers and through their total and deliberate inaction, responsibility.

  20. They may take our lives, but they will never take our heroin.

  21. Glasgow’s poverty and organised crime makes it vulnerable to drug problems and that’s why it has highest drug death rate in Scotland. It’s predominantly benzos and opioids that kills. Glasgow is a huge consumer market and central distribution hub for Scotland with most lines running out of it to all parts of the country.

    Drugs are cheap (especially synthetics) and widely available, supplied by county lines gangs from Liverpool/Merseyside and Manchester. Glasgow then acts as a base from which county lines operations spread outwards throughout Scotland.

  22. Westminster drug policy just isn’t compatible with Scottish issues

  23. Its a tough one to fix this….i think it has to be education but that alone will not fix this issue.
    I dont think it will ever be zero.
    And how much money do you throw at these people to help them because surely there is a cut off point and the money would be spent better elsewhere.
    Im not heartless ,but ive seen these people some i know and none of them have improved their lifes.

  25. For a start legalise cannabis, SO many police resources are diverted from going after top end heroin and cocaine dealers because its so much easier to go for a few people doing an illegal grow (even “large” amounts are insanely easy to grow if someone has the space) next step I’d say is decriminalisation and for low end addicts who are repeat offenders and are caught for things like shoplifting should be given a choice of rehab or jail. Harm reduction is a must because if users can’t get things like clean needles then we know sharing is going to happen and then dangerous disease will inevitably end up in the non-drug using population too through relationships and sex (drug users don’t only interact with each other obviously). Good quality rehab is a must too, I know for a fact there are rehabs out there that are half-assed affairs.
    If addicts are given up on the cycle will never end as the troubles and deaths of addicts inevitably hurt families and close ones who often either already have an alcohol or drug problem or younger ones follow their patterns.

    Also let’s not forget the massive issue with alcoholism in Scotland too, there is SO much social harm caused by alcohol in different ways.
    As a society it would be helpful if we didn’t let ourselves become even more fragmented as being shunned by society really doesn’t help either.

    Drugs and alcohol-related issues aren’t going away unfortunately, we can say “we need to give up on these people because they brought it on themselves/there’s only so much we can do so let’s cut services” etc…but that will compound the problem. There are people who won’t want to get help, nothing much can be done there but there needs to be a path to getting clean and/or sober for those whom want it and many don’t manage the 1st time either. It’s an awful disease for them.

  26. The solution to this problem is very straightforward but there is no political will to do it – it suits the UK government to lay this at the feet of the Scottish government.

    Decriminalise drugs, provide effective treatment for drug addicts (including giving heroin addicts heroin instead of that trash methadone), and give those addicts safe places to use their drugs.

  27. The STV News article frames the results as drug deaths in Scotland fall by 13% in a year and are the lowest in 8 years but remain highest in Europe. The article by the Beeb suggests this lowering trend may be a one off.

  29. The reality that a lot of people don’t want to admit is that life, for a lot of people in Scotland, can be pretty bleak and unfulfilling.

  33. Why “Scotland is the worst in Europe for drug deaths” is misleading:
    -Different rules – Scotland counts more cases (toxicology + any drug presence), while most of Europe uses narrower definitions.
    -Under-reporting elsewhere – England, Wales, and EU nations often miss 30–50% of drug deaths.
    -Faster reporting – Scotland’s data is detailed and up-to-date; many countries lag or estimate.
    -Not like-for-like – A “drug death” in Scotland might not be classed as one in other countries.

  34. Scotgov needs to mandate vitamin D supplementation in flour.

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