Scotland leads Europe in drugs deaths eight years running

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SCOTLAND has retained the unenviable title of drugs death capital of Europe with an 11 per cent increase in fatalities.

The latest figures, published by the National Records of Scotland (NRS) show 1,133 people lost their lives through drugs in 2025, an increase of 116 a year earlier. 

They mark a near reversal of the progress made between 2023 and 2024 when deaths fell by 155.

The death rate now stands at 214 deaths per million, 1.5, 1.6 and 2.4 times that of Wales, the six counties and England respectively, and leaves Scotland with the highest rate in Europe for the eighth year running.

Beyond the headline data however, there was a 5 per cent fall in female drug deaths, compared with a staggering 19 per cent jump in that for males, while cocaine and synthetic opioids like Etonitazene were implicated in 589 and 247 deaths respectively.

Offering “heartfelt condolences” to those who had lost loved ones, drugs minister Maree Todd said: “Each and every death is a tragedy, and even more so because every life lost to drug harms is preventable.

“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.

“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.”

She added: “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.”

Calling for an overhaul of drug law and action to tackle the “poverty, trauma, poor mental health, isolation, and deprivation” driving people to drugs, Scottish Greens health spokeswoman Kayleigh Kinross-O’Neill said: “Scotland is facing a drugs crisis, and it must be treated with the urgency it demands, through public health, prevention, compassion, and evidence.”

Taking aim at the Scottish government, Scottish Labour health spokesperson Jackie Baillie said: “Years have passed since a public health emergency was declared, and it is shameful that things are still moving in the wrong direction. 

“This is a damning indictment of the Scottish government’s failure to support some of the most marginalised people in Scotland.”