The publication of Scotland’s latest drug death statistics is an annual event that has become tragically routine.
Thousands more families left grieving – yet again – and another drugs minister put in front of the cameras to offer apologies and promises.
Maree Todd is the fifth minister with this responsibility in five years.
“I’m desperately sorry,” Todd said, before promising her government is doing everything it can to tackle this.
The latest figures show 1,017 deaths for last year. This is actually down 13% and is the lowest number of fatalities recorded since 2017.
But the drugs minister admits this is not cause for joy or celebration.
There was a dip two years ago, and the drugs minister at that time, Elena Whitham, announced the Scottish government was turning a corner.
That was followed by a 12% rise last year.
Early forecasts based on suspected drug deaths in the first half of this year suggest the next drug deaths report will show another rise.
The trend appears to be that the number of people dying in Scotland rose to an unprecedented level from about 2015 to 2022.
Since then – despite tens of millions of pounds thrown at the problem – the numbers are staying worryingly high, and Scotland remains the drug death capital of Europe.
More than 7,000 people have now died since the Scottish government declared this a drugs death emergency back in 2019.
This crisis now represents what could be the single biggest and deadliest failure of policy in Scotland since devolution.
The problem is exacerbated in Scotland by what’s known as ‘polydrug use’ – in other words, people taking multiple substances every day.
