Drug Related Deaths in Scotland in 2006

30 August 2007

The Registrar General for Scotland has today published a short paper giving summary information about drug-related deaths in Scotland in 2006. Key points to emerge include:

There were 421 drug-related deaths in 2006, which is 85 (25 per cent) more than in 2005 and 39 (10 per cent) more than the highest previously recorded total of 382 in 2002.
Within these totals, the number of deaths of people known or suspected to be drug-dependent increased from 204 in 2005 to 280 in 2006.
Of the 421 deaths in 2006
- heroin/morphine was involved in 260 (62 per cent) – compared to 194 deaths (58 per cent) in 2005.
- Methadone was involved in 97 (23 per cent) of deaths, an increase of 25 compared to 2005.
- Fewer deaths involved cocaine – 33 (8 per cent) compared to 44 in 2005.
- Diazepam was involved in 78 (19 per cent), including 50 of the deaths involving heroin/morphine. Deaths involving diazepam peaked in 2002 and have decreased markedly since then.
38 per cent (162) of the deaths were in the Greater Glasgow & Clyde NHS Board area, with 47 in Grampian and 46 in Lothian.
Deaths in Greater Glasgow & Clyde increased by 51 when compared to 2005, and there was also a substantial increase (24) in Grampian. However, there was a reduction of 11 in Lothian.
83 per cent of those who died were under 45 and 16 per cent were under 25. Almost four-fifths (79 per cent) were men.

Notes For News Editors

1. The information presented about drug-related deaths in Scotland uses the revised definition for baseline figures introduced in 2001. This definition was agreed by a working party set up following the publication in 2000, by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), of a report on ‘Reducing drug related deaths’. The revised definition is also being used elsewhere in the United Kingdom.

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