Scotland ‘in grip of drugs death crisis’

The number of drug-related deaths in Scotland increased by eleven per cent last year.

National Records of Scotland (NRS) recorded 1,133 deaths from drug use in 2025 — the sixth highest figure on record, and the eighth successive year the number has exceeded 1,000.

According to the NRS, Scotland’s drug poisoning death rate is more than double compared to England and roughly one and a half times that of Wales and Northern Ireland.

Cocaine

The Government body attributed the latest increase to escalating male deaths, which were “around three times the rate for females”.

It also found that the rate of drug deaths in the most deprived areas of Scotland was 15 times as high as in the least deprived areas.

Cocaine was implicated in over half of drug use deaths (52 per cent) and one in five (22 per cent) were connected to the highly dangerous synthetic opioid nitazenes.

The Scottish Government, which is pursuing a ‘harm reduction’ approach under its Alcohol and Drugs Strategic Plan, expressed dismay at the numbers, considering, it claimed, the “work that we are doing across the system”.

Catastrophe

Paul Bowley, chief executive of a drug rehabilitation programme, said: “Every single death recorded in these annual figures is a tragedy, and represents a life that mattered and a family left devastated.”

He described Scotland as being “in the grip of a drugs death crisis” and called for more investment “in treatment and recovery services and clearer pathways for people to seek help”.

Annemarie Ward, CEO of addiction recovery charity FAVOR UK, commented: “Scotland cannot keep moving between a catastrophic year and a slightly less catastrophic year and call that progress.”

She added: “At some point Government must be judged not by how much it spends, how many initiatives it announces or how compassionate its language sounds, but by what actually happens to people. And the system is not delivering.”