Scottish Drug Deaths Rise 11% to 1,133, Still the Worst in Europe
Deaths related to illicit drugs rose by 116 last year to 1,133, National Records of Scotland reported, taking the decade’s toll beyond 11,000 and leaving Scotland with Europe’s worst rate at 214 per million people. Synthetic opioids drove the increase: nitazenes were implicated in 247 deaths, more than treble the previous year’s 76. Cocaine featured in 52% of deaths, the highest since records began in 2008. The rise followed a 13% fall in 2024.
The reversal matters more than the number. Scotland’s 2024 improvement was read as evidence that treatment standards and naloxone distribution were finally working; a year later criminal gangs cutting heroin, cocaine and counterfeit Valium with nitazenes have overwhelmed that progress, and nitazene deaths alone now exceed one death in five. The demographics are stark: male deaths up 19% while female deaths fell 5%, and a rate in the most deprived areas fifteen times that of the least. The average age of death has risen from 32 in 2000 to 46 — an ageing cohort dying of long-term use. Watch whether Holyrood classes nitazenes as a distinct emergency.