Scotland's drug deaths in 2020 highest per capita in Europe

By Yunus Girgin

ANKARA (AA) – Drug-related deaths in Scotland hit record levels in 2020 with 1,339 fatalities, that country's official data revealed Friday.

The figure was the largest number since records began in 1996, marking a 5.5-fold increase and up 5% from the previous year.

Scotland’s drug death rate continues to be more than 3.5 times that for the UK as a whole, and higher than per capita of any European country last year, said the National Records of Scotland (NRS).

People in the most deprived areas were 18 times as likely to have a drug-related death as those in the least deprived areas, according to NRS.

This ratio almost doubled in 20 years, which was 10 times in 2000.

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said that the number of lives lost to drugs is unacceptable.

"The Scottish Government does not shirk the responsibility and we are determined to make changes that will save lives," she wrote Twitter.

Last January, the government announced it would pledge £250 million ($347.6 million) in the next five years to help tackle the crisis.

Sturgeon stressed that the 2020 figures predate actions set out at the start of 2021.