Minister’s eye ‘absolutely on ball’ as figures show surge in drug deaths

Deaths from illicit drug use in Scotland rose by 11% last year and remains by far the highest rate in Europe.

Maree Todd said the Government must “work harder and faster” to stem the rise amid the flood of powerful synthetic drugs.

The minister, who took up the role in June 2025, said it was “impossible” to say whether she was doing a good job “on a day like today when we’re facing statistics like this”, which showed 116 more people had died than in 2024.

The figures from the National Records of Scotland (NRS) show the rate of deaths from drug poisoning were 2.4 times higher than it was in England, 1.6 times greater than in Northern Ireland and 1.5 times more than in Wales – with these figures covering 2024, the most recent year for which data is available for all parts of the UK.

Nitazenes – synthetic opioids – were implicated in 247 drug use deaths in 2025, with Etonitazene, the most common nitazene, being involved in 215 drug use deaths.

Drugs deaths were down by 5% for women but skyrocketed by 19% for men.

More than one drug was implicated in 78% of deaths, with the figures also showing a 23% rise in deaths where cocaine was implicated, the highest on record.

Speaking to the Press Association in Glasgow, Ms Todd said: “My heartfelt condolences go out to each and every family that has experienced loss.

“These figures are devastating, these deaths are preventable, and behind each and every number is a family who are feeling loss.”

She said: “It’s really painful that what we’ve seen is a rise in drugs deaths in 2025 compared to the year before. I would have hoped, with all of the work that we are doing across the system, we wouldn’t be facing that situation.”

“We’ve seen a rise in synthetic opioids that are exceptionally potent and causing death and destruction on our streets,” she added.

Ms Todd said experts had told her the Scottish Government was taking “all the right steps” to tackle drug deaths.

Asked about former first minister Nicola Sturgeon’s admission in 2021 that the Government took its “eye off the ball”, Ms Todd told PA: “My eye is absolutely on the ball.”

But she admitted there was “absolutely no getting away from how painful it is to be standing here in front of you today and looking at a rise in drugs deaths”, adding that she would not “shy away from responsibility”.

The drugs minister said there should be “no reason” why people with addiction should struggle to access rehab, saying cash had been given to councils and that “money should be no object”.

Promising action, she added: “What I absolutely commit to do to you and to all of the people who are listening or watching, is to redouble my efforts to keep working on all of the things that I know will make a difference right across the suite of our efforts, and we will make progress.”

Catriona Matheson, professor in substance use at the University of Stirling, said “highly potent synthetic opioids” were contaminating heroin and other opioids, posing a “serious risk” to drug users.

“We are also still seeing high levels of cocaine use alongside other substances, fuelled by the availability of low-cost cocaine through international drug markets,” she said.

“While the drivers of supply are often beyond Scotland’s control, their impact is being felt in communities across the country.”

Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour’s health spokeswoman, said despite ministers declaring a drugs emergency years ago, “it is shameful that things are still moving in the wrong direction”.

She said: “This is a damning indictment of the Scottish Government’s failure to support some of the most marginalised people in Scotland.

“Action is long overdue and we cannot afford any more delays while lives are being lost.”

The Scottish Greens warned the SNP it “cannot keep repeating the same failed approach and expect different results”.

Health spokesperson Kayleigh Kinross-O’Neill said ministers could not cut the number of drug deaths “without tackling the conditions that are driving harmful drug use in the first place, such as poverty, trauma, poor mental health, isolation, and deprivation”.

Reform MSP Victor Currie said: “Today’s figures land less than 24 hours after yesterday’s homelessness statistics delivered the other half of the one-two punch – a surge in homeless children, rough sleeping and families stuck in temporary accommodation.

“Together they reveal a government that has locked Scotland into a doom spiral, where one form of social collapse only feeds the next.”

The Scottish Drugs Forum called for more safer drug consumption facilities and drug checking services.

Chief executive Kirsten Horsburgh added: “It is too simplistic to say that 1,133 people died because of the contaminated drug supply, or indeed because of drug use itself. The truth is that these deaths are shaped by a much wider set of factors, including poverty, trauma, deprivation, housing insecurity and mental health inequality.”

Drug deaths are 15 times higher in Scotland’s most deprived communities, with the average age of death increasing from 32 in 2000 to 46 in 2025.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole Hamilton said: “There is no shortage of powers that the Scottish Government has at its disposal to end this crisis and stop people dying. This loss of life must compel them to finally make the most of those powers and deliver the world-class drug services Scotland deserves.”

Conservative MSP Miles Briggs said the “horrific figures” showed the SNP’s approach has “catastrophically failed”.

“They cannot continue to double down on their policies when the number of lives being lost has soared over the last year. They must shut down their flagship Thistle facility in Glasgow and ditch any plans for more state-sponsored drug taking at drug consumption rooms, including in Edinburgh,” he said.