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Scotland cannot waste any more time tackling drug-related deaths, MSPs say
There were over 1,000 recorded deaths linked to drug use in the first nine months of 2021, new figures
A wreath depicting 1935, the number of drug overdose deaths in Scotland, is laid outside the Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh, to mark International Overdose Awareness Day, on August 31, 2021
SCOTLAND cannot afford to waste any time in tackling the country’s continued drug-related deaths, MSPs said in response to new figures which show that more than 1,000 people died in the first nine months of 2021.
Police Scotland recorded 1,007 deaths that it believes were linked to drug use between January and September this year, 40 fewer than the same period in 2020.
The highest number of suspected drug deaths occurred in the Greater Glasgow region, with 265 fatalities in the first nine months of the year, followed by Lanarkshire with 98 and then the city of Edinburgh and the north-east, both with 86.
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