Drugs deaths in Scotland soar to record level

Country has Europe’s worst drugs death rate, more than three-and-a-half times higher than rest of UK

Drugs deaths in Scotland have hit a new record after 1,339 people died last year from overdoses or the cumulative effects of years of addiction.

National Records of Scotland, the statistics agency, said the figure was a 5% increase on drugs-related fatalities registered in 2019. The country continues to have the worst drug death rate in Europe with an age-standardised death rate in 2020 of 25.2 per 100,000 people, more than three-and-a-half times higher than the rest of the UK. It is the seventh annual increase in a row.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3feubkB