Drug deaths up over 20% in one year...in Scotland

this isn't ABOUT drug barons its about people already hooked and how to either get them off it or help them to use it safely .Filling prisons with drug users is clearly madness ,it puts a strain on those resources and give the user access to career criminals which makes the situation worse .Keeping them out of jail and giving them the RIGHT help surely makes sense ?

Portugal de-criminalised taking drugs 20 yrs ago and have gone from the country in Europe with the most drug related deaths to one of the lowest.
The uk will never ever go down this route. It's not going to get any better

Suppliers---dealers and the drug barons. Where do the police fit in with all this in tracking these people down ?

there were 2500 deaths from drugs in England in the same period ,so while per capita its higher in Scotland the numbers are still very high south of the border .Drugs .. all drugs are controlled by the home office ,so when Medical Cannabis was discussed in Holyrood although we gave it the green light we aren;t "allowed " to prescribe it without Home Office approval ,the same when we discussed legalising cannabis .The westminster/home office way of dealing with drug use..their famous "war on drugs" doesn't work and we need to take a different approach as discussed by Holyrood last year .Meantime we have to still go down the criminalise the drug user and prosecute them route and that clearly doesn't work .
Of course you are right Annie not everything can be blamed on poverty BUT it has been proven that people from deprived backgrounds are more likely to be heavy alcohol and drug users .We cant wipe out poverty in one fell swoop but we could make a difference by changing how we deal with addicts

"SNP MP Alison Thewliss has campaigned vigorously for the opening of a Supervised Drug Consumption Facility (SDCF) in her constituency – where there is a significant drug-injecting population – but the Home Office has so far refused to grant the necessary legal exemptions to allow any facility to operate."
www.snp.org/were-taking-urgent-action-to-tackle-scotlands-drug-emergency/

Hence many factors Annie.

Every thing cannot be blamed on poverty ,

It would, EllanVannin.
Comparing figures for similar areas would be more useful than just saying "Westminster is doing better than Scotland." though, as there are so many factors involved.

End the deprivation would be a start.

"Last year, more than two-thirds of drug-related deaths [in Scotland] were aged between 35 and 54."
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-47292487

That is an interesting article, showing the many factors involved.
For instance, the deaths of people, especially men, in a slightly older age group - referred to as the 'Trainspotting generation'.
Clearly drug use is higher in deprived areas. It could be useful to see the figures for similar areas in the rest of the UK.

Oh - and you’ll be glad to know that the SG and national bodies and agencies are meeting very soon to discuss how to deal with this issue.

Drugs isn’t a devolved issue? In what way?

And as Calendar says - Westminster seems to be doing a lot better than the SG on this issue

1200 deaths in one year is 1200 too many .We have to be "allowed" to take charge of this and find a solution .Westminters way isn't working

I think it said on the news that Scotland’s deaths were far higher than the rest of the UK combined.