Drug Deaths and Misuse in Scotland

Scotland has the highest drug death rates compared to the rest of the UK and western Europe.
A large part of Scottish culture is drugs and drug misuse; this is showed evidently with the
many drug deaths recorded each year. According to the National Records of Scotland (NRS),
in 2022,1051 people died from drug related causes. The high number of drug deaths have led
to Scotland being called the ‘Sickman of Europe.’ More needs to be done to combat this
issue.
However, the government already has many policies in place to try and deal with the drug
problem, but they have not been enough. For example, one of these policies is the methadone
programme. This it to try and help addicts get off whatever drug they are addicted to (usually
heroin). Although, it usually ends up with users no longer being addicted to the drug but
instead becoming addicted to the methadone. According to the NRS in 2009 around 200
people were killed by methadone addiction in Scotland compared to just over 600 in 2020.
Another programme used to help addicts is the needle exchange. This was designed to reduce
the spread of blood born viruses spreading by providing free, clean equipment that is
sterilised and safe disposal of used equipment. It reduces the number of needles that are lying
on the streets and stops people potentially dying because they used an old, dirty, used needle
to inject. Unfortunately, these programmes have not been enough to stop the rise in drug
deaths.
The Scottish government has proposed the introduction of drug consumption rooms but have
been stopped by the UK government. In 2017 the UK government blocked a consumption
room, saying that they have no plans to back the introduction of them.
There are some concerns regarding this policy. According to the Society for the A country
that has already introduced these rooms is Denmark. According to a BBC article ‘Denmark
opened their second consumption room in August 2013’. A study conducted by Statista
showed that in 2009 115 people died before consumption rooms were introduced compared
to only 70 people in 2015 after they were introduced. Although, this does not mean that it
could work this way in Scotland. The UK Government has been able to block these drug
consumption rooms from being introduced because drugs are a reserved matter to the UK
parliament. However, the Scottish govt has managed to introduce a consumption room in
Glasgow without the UK gov blocking it. As the consumption room has been approved in
Glasgow, much controversy has arisen. the cost of these rooms is one. A Sky news article
reported that ‘up to £2.3 million has been allocated for pilots in several Scottish cities if
Glasgow is successful’ but where the money for this is coming from has not been revealed
stated. The UK Minister for crime Kit Malthouse, when speaking to the BBC, said “To me,
Drug consumption rooms are a bit of a distraction.” A clearer plan needs to be published, by
the Scottish Government, before ministers and the police service supports the UK wide
introduction of consumption rooms.
The Scottish Government has proposed the decriminalisation of the possession of drugs for
quite some time. The benefits of doing this seem to be mostly positive. This would only
affect possession of drugs for personal use, not for supplying to others. It is hoped that doing
this would help and support users rather than criminalising them and sending them to prison.
One country that already has relaxed their drug laws is Portugal and they have significantly
lower deaths than Scotland. According to the NRS Scotland had 248 deaths per million
people in 2021. This was compared to only 9 per Millon from Portugal in 2020, according to
the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction. In Portugal drug trafficking
and dealing is still illegal. People can have a 10-day stash of any drug for personal use only.
If a user is detained but there is no evidence of them selling, the police can seize the drug and
send them to a consultation with a panel made up of a legal expert, a health professional, and
a social worker. However, there is another side to the impact in Portugal after the
decriminalisation of drugs. The mayor of Porto, Portugal's 2nd city which has 1 of 2
consumption rooms in the country, has various concerns about the decriminalisation. The law
passed has removed stigma with drugs among young people leading them to criminal
behaviour to feed and fund their addiction, also supporting funds for drug dealers. Hard drugs
have lost a lot of stigmatisms, leading to many users injecting outside of school buildings. If
the Scottish government decriminalises drugs this could happen in Scotland, even though the
stigma around drugs should be removed, it could lead to even more deaths than now.
In conclusion, I believe that these policies could really help lower Scotland's drug death rate,
but it would need constant and closely supervised, so that they will not do the opposite of
intended and deaths skyrocket.
Word count: 853 words
Sources
 BBC news
 gov.scot.com
 National records of Scotland
 Sky news
 Statista.com
 the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction.