Drug-related deaths in Scotland have hit record levels for the seventh year in a row, with 1,339 people dying in 2020.
It is the largest number of drug-related deaths since records began in 1996 and the highest number of people dying as a result of drug misuse in Europe.
In 2019, the number of fatalities was 1,264 – three-and-a-half times the figure for England and Wales.
The figures showed:
Men were 2.7 times as likely to die of drug misuse than women People in the most deprived areas were 18 times as likely to die than those in the least deprived areas Almost two-thirds of all drug-related deaths were people between ages 35 and 54. This age has increased from 32 to 43 over the past 20 years The highest death rate was in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, followed by Ayrshire, Arran and Tayside Most of the deaths – some 1,192 were in some way related to opioids Benzodiazepines were implicated in 974 deaths Read more via Sky News
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