Comment from Right There CEO Janet Haugh
Scotland’s latest drugs death stats show an 11% increase since last year: Drug-related deaths in Scotland, 2025 – National Records of Scotland (NRS)
Right There CEO Janet Haugh had this to say about it:
“Behind today’s figures are thousands of devastated families and communities. The emergence of new synthetic drugs adds another layer of concern, but it does not change the fact that Scotland has been grappling with this crisis for far too long.
“Lasting progress will come from tackling the conditions that make people vulnerable to addiction in the first place. That means investing in prevention, addressing poverty and ensuring that recovery and rehabilitation are available to everyone who needs them.”
Key figures:
• In 2025, there were 1,133 drug use deaths registered in Scotland, an increase of 11% (116 deaths) compared with 2024.
• Drug use deaths have increased over time. The number has fluctuated in the last five years but remains lower than the highest point in the series in 2020 (1,339 deaths).
• There were 21.4 drug use deaths per 100,000 people in 2025, after adjusting for age. This is four times as high as when the series began in 2000.
• In 2025, the rate of drug use deaths in the most deprived areas of Scotland was 15 times as high as in the least deprived areas. In contrast, the rate is around two times as high for all causes of death.
• The rate of drug use deaths was higher than the Scotland average in Glasgow City, Dundee City, North Ayrshire, Inverclyde, West Dunbartonshire, and East Ayrshire (measured over the five-year period 2021 to 2025).
• Opiates/opioids continued to be the most common type of drug implicated in drug use deaths. They were implicated in 78% of drug use deaths in 2025 (881 deaths).
• Cocaine was implicated in over half of the drug use deaths in 2025 (52% or 589 deaths). This is the highest number since the series began in 2008, and an increase of 23% (110 deaths) from 2024.
• Nitazenes, a group of potent synthetic opioids, were implicated in more than one in five drug use deaths in 2025 (22% or 247 deaths). Etonitazene was the most common nitazene, implicated in 215 drug use deaths.
