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
