More drug rehab treatment to be made available in Scotland
Research has identified that far more needs to be done to bond detox treatment to rehab.
Drugs policy minister Angela Constance
Join thousands of others in getting the stories that matter to you sent straight to your inbox.Invalid EmailSomething went wrong, please try again later.
Subscribe
When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Your information will be used in accordance with ourPrivacy Notice.
Thank you for subscribingWe have more newslettersShow meSee ourprivacy notice
A major new wave of rehab treatment is set for Scotland after the government accepted all major recommendations after a review.
That figure is down from 2018’s total of 22 deaths related to drugs. The region s average for 2015-2019 is 0.13 deaths per 1,000 population. A spokesperson for NHS Borders said: “We are working hard with partners from a wide range of agencies to deliver actions which could help prevent drug-related deaths.” This work includes reviewing the circumstances of each drug-related death, ensuring “rapid” access to drug treatment and increasing the number of people in treatment. National Records of Scotland figures show there were 1,264 deaths nationally last year, an increase of six per cent from 2018. Scotland’s drug-death rate was higher than those reported for all the EU countries, and was approximately 3.5 times that of the UK as a whole.
Efforts to tackle Scotland’s drug death crisis have been branded a failure as another record number of people dead was reported. The official figures for 2019 showed that the number who died increased again, from last year’s record, to 1264. In Glasgow, the number of men and women who died from a drug related death was similar to last year’s record total. In 2019 there were 279 deaths in the city, just one fewer than in 2018. There were 191 men and 88 women who died. It is an average of more than five drug related deaths a week in Glasgow. The changing pattern of drug use in the most problematic of drug users can be seen in the report.
In 2000 the figure was 292 across Scotland. By 2010 it was 485. In Glasgow in 2000 it was 96 and by 2009 it had increased to 135, before a fall the following year. A decade later and the latest available statistics, for 2019, released today show it has more than doubled in the last decade. Anecdotal evidence from people involved in drug support services expect the trend has continued and even more people have been dying in 2020. There has been an increase in recent years in the presence of benzodiazepines, particularly so called ‘street valium’ or ‘blues’ produced illegally by drug dealers and sold cheaply. While services for decades focussed heavily on providing methadone as a substitute others with lived experience have been calling for more investment in residential rehab.