Scottish drugs deaths double in a decade
The number of drug-related deaths in Scotland has doubled in 10 years.
- Published in the Courier : 31.03.10
- Published online : 02.04.10 @ 06.23am
New figures have revealed a stark picture of the toll drug abuse is taking on Scotland and in Dundee, which has the third highest rate of addiction in the country.
Statistics released by the Scottish Drug Misuse Database show there are nearly 2500 addicts living in Dundee and more than 55,000 across Scotland.
The cost to the NHS of providing methadone treatment is also soaring.
According to those working to tackle the scourge of drug abuse in Scotland, cuts in public spending threaten to undermine efforts to rid Scotland's streets of drugs.
Despite the chaos and devastation caused by substance abuse, 11,955 new problem users were reported to the Scottish Drug Misuse database in 2008/09.
More than half of these, 5955, were heroin users, with 3247 using diazepam while there were 3051 cannabis users. There were 1231 cocaine users and 526 people using crack cocaine.
According to the most recent figures available, from 2006, there are an estimated 55,328 problem drug users in Scotland, 1.62% of the population.
In Dundee there are 2454 addicts — 2.6% of the total population. Eight hundred and forty-five of them are thought to regularly inject heroin.
The only council areas with higher rates of drug abuse than Dundee are Glasgow and West Dunbartonshire, where 3.27% and 2.61% of the populations are addicted.
In Angus there are an estimated 868 users (1.24% of the population), 3015 in Fife (1.27%) and 873 in Perth and Kinross (0.97%).
Drug-related deaths
There were 574 drug-related deaths in Scotland in 2008, up from 455 the year before but more than double the 246 deaths that were recorded a decade before.
Twenty-nine people died in Dundee in 2008, up from 22 in 1998. There were eight deaths in Angus, 37 in Fife — nearly triple the number of 13 fatalities in 1998 — and 16 in Perth and Kinross.
The cost of trying to wean addicts off heroin is also rocketing with the bill for methadone now £16 million a year.
Official NHS statistics showed 493,770 prescriptions for methadone in 2008/09, up by 862 from the year before. Methadone prescribing rates are up 19% over the past five years.
The cost has now reached £16 million — up from £15.2 million the year before and from £12.9 million in 2004/05.
The highest cost was in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS health board area, where it reached £6.2 million, while the cost was £3.1 million in Lothian.
In Tayside the cost was £825,992 and in Fife £854,561.
