Scotland witnessed a drop of 279 fatalities attributed to drug misuse last year, marking the lowest count in five years. However, the nation’s drug death rate remains the highest in both the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe, with approximately 90 lives lost each month due to narcotics.
While the Scottish government aims to address this crisis by proposing the decriminalization of drug possession for personal use, the UK government, holding authority over drug policy, has rejected this proposition on the grounds of potential danger and has refrained from granting the Scottish Parliament the jurisdiction to enact the proposed policy.
The Scottish National Party (SNP) ministers, drawing inspiration from Portugal’s drug law relaxation in 2001, view it as a model to emulate. Despite having a population almost twice that of Scotland (10.3 million compared to 5.5 million), Portugal experiences significantly fewer drug-related deaths. In 2021, there were merely 74 drug-related deaths in Portugal, compared to 1,330 in Scotland during the same period, based on available comparable data.
The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) utilizes the age bracket of 15-64 years to compare drug deaths. By this measure, the National Records of Scotland reports that Scotland recorded 327 deaths per million people in 2020, the latest year for which detailed figures are available. In contrast, EMCDDA indicates that Portugal registered only nine deaths per million.
Although Scotland’s drug-related deaths have declined, the ongoing challenges and high death rate underscore the urgency of addressing drug misuse through comprehensive and effective measures.
