Data from Police Scotland has shown a 10 per cent rise in suspected drug deaths, with 1,197 reported for 2023 compared to 1,092 in 2022. The figure for under 25s is almost unchanged between the two years, with 54 in 2023 compared to 55 in 2022.
Fiona Spargo-Mabbs OBE, founder and director of the drugs education charity the DSM Foundation, commented:
“Seeing these figures rise yet again is heartbreaking from both a personal and professional perspective. As a mum with lived experience of losing a child to drugs, I know something of how much of a hole each one of these individual lives will have left for those that love and have lost them. As the director and founder of a drug education charity committed to reducing drug-related harm, this is another sad reminder of how vital it is to ensure all young people across Scotland have access to effective, evidence-based drug education, that equips them to face decisions about drugs more safely, and reduces the risks and harms drugs can cause, both in the short and longer term. We know young people are exposed to drugs on an increasingly regular basis as they move through their teens, both in real life and on social media, just at the stage of their lives when managing risk is never harder, especially when they’re with their friends. Making sure the drug education young people in Scotland are getting is as good as it possibly can be must be right at the heart of all the wider work going on to prevent drug-related harm, and any response to these tragic figures.
“Having provided three successful tours of our Theatre in Education production of our commissioned play by Mark Wheeller, ‘I Love You, Mum – I Promise I Won’t Die’, in schools across Scotland over the last two years, we’re so pleased to be piloting our multi-component drug education programme in nine schools across the Grampian region this academic year, with funding from Scottish Government, Police Scotland, local authorities and schools. Every school has been being provided with interactive workshops for students, webinars for parents and carers, training for staff, drug education lesson plans and resources for teachers to use in Personal and Social Education (PSE), our Youth Ambassador programme, and a performance of our play that tells Dan’s story. The evaluation of this pilot programme that Aberdeen University is working on will be shared at a dissemination event in June, and following this we very much hope to be able to provide our programme resources much more widely to schools and communities across Scotland.
“Prevention, with drug education as a core part of that, takes time to demonstrate its impact on numbers like this, but without it being firmly embedded in any response to drug-related deaths we’re likely to see these numbers keep going in the wrong direction, and more families robbed of those they love, which isn’t what any of us want.”
