Scotland’s drug death rate remains highest in Europe as figures increase by 11 per cent in a year

Drug-related deaths in Scotland have risen by 11 per cent, official figures show.

A total of 1,133 people lost their lives to drugs in 2025, an increase of 116 on the previous year.

The death rate – still the highest in Europe – is four times as high as when current records began in 2000.

The average age of those to lose their lives was just 46 and the rate of deaths was 15 times higher in the most deprived areas than the least.

Glasgow, Dundee, North Ayrshire, Inverclyde, West Dunbartonshire and East Ayrshire had a higher-than-average case rate and while cocaine was implicated in more than half of all deaths, nitazenes – synthetic opioids – were present in 247 deaths.

Alcohol and drugs minister Maree Todd said the illegal drugs supply is “increasingly toxic and unpredictable”.

Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said ministers had “taken their eye off the ball”.

He said: “There is no shortage of powers that the Scottish Government has at its disposal to end this crisis and stop people dying. This loss of life must compel them to finally make the most of those powers and deliver the world-class drug services Scotland deserves.”

Rachel Weir of the charity Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol and Drugs said: “We need to stop minimising these deaths. The people behind these statistics were sons, daughters, parents, siblings, partners and friends. They had hopes, ambitions and dreams for the future. They were far more than the challenges they faced.”

National Records of Scotland bases the statistics on cases where the underlying cause of death was attributed to drug poisoning.

Scotland’s drug poisoning death rate is 2.4 times higher than that of England, 1.5 times that of Wales and 1.6 times that of Northern Ireland.

The response to the drugs crisis in Scotland has been affected by the prevalence of new mixes in the black market, with suppliers adding nitazenes and other substances into drugs like cocaine and heroin.

The country’s first official drug checking service will open in Glasgow next month.

While there was a 19 per cent increase in drug use deaths in males, cases involving women decreased by five per cent.

Catriona Matheson, professor in substance use at the University of Stirling, said these “significant changes” show further action is needed to prevent deaths.

She said: “In recent years, significant efforts have been made to reduce drug-related harm, including improvements to treatment services, wider distribution of naloxone and the expansion of overdose response initiatives. We also know that engagement with treatment services can significantly reduce the risk of overdose and death so support to get people into treatment should be escalated. 

“Scotland's drug surveillance system has played an important role in rapidly identifying emerging threats and issuing alerts about dangerous substances. However, there is more that can be done. A fully functioning drug checking service would provide people with direct information about the substances they are taking and help reduce harm. Progress on establishing these services has been far too slow and is long overdue.”

Todd said the level of deaths remained “unacceptable”.

She said:  “The increase in deaths involving cocaine, and the continued threat from dangerous synthetic opioids like nitazenes, must drive more coordinated action across the country.

“We have taken important steps forward, including funding more than 1,100 residential rehabilitation placements last year and widening access to treatment and life-saving naloxone. However, despite these policy interventions, and the actions of our valued frontline workers, it is clear we need to do much more to reduce this tragic loss of life.

“Our new Alcohol and Drugs Strategic Plan will strengthen surveillance, deepen links between treatment, housing and other services, and target support at the communities most at risk. I have also announced today that Scotland's first local drug-checking service will open in Glasgow this October, building on the UK’s first safer drug consumption facility.  

“Whilst we are using every lever available through our devolved powers, it is clearly now vital that the UK Government work with us to transfer the greater powers over drugs policy that we require to treat drug harms fully as a public health issue.”