Drug-related deaths in SNP-goverened Scotland rose by 11 per cent last year as the country retained the highest drugs death rate in Europe.

New figures from National Records of Scotland (NRS) showed there were 1,133 drug use deaths in Scotland in 2025 – an increase of 116 deaths compared with 2024.

Cocaine was implicated in more than half (52 per cent or 529 deaths) of the drug use deaths last year – an increase of 23 per cent (or 110 deaths) from 2024.

Opioids continued to be the most common type of drug implicated in deaths. They were implicated in 78 per cent (or 881 deaths) of the drug use deaths in 2025.

More than one drug was also implicated in almost four out of five deaths (78 per cent). 

Scotland has a higher rate of drug-induced deaths than countries across the EU, as well as Norway and Turkey, 

The rate of deaths from drug poisoning in Scotland was also 2.4 times the rate of England, 1.6 times the rate of Northern Ireland and 1.5 times the rate of Wales in 2024, which is the most recent year that data is available across the UK.

Drug-related deaths in SNP-goverened Scotland rose by 11 per cent last year as the country retained the highest drugs death rate in Europe

In 2025, there were 830 male drug use deaths in Scotland – an increase of 19 per cent (131 deaths) from 2024, according to the NRS figures

Across both sexes, the average age of drug use deaths has increased from 32 years in 2000 to 46 years in 2025

But the NRS said better identification and recording of the drugs involved in deaths in Scotland may be a reason for the higher rate of drug deaths compared with other countries.

Between 2014 to 2020, the number of drug deaths in Scotland increased each year to a peak in 2020 (1,339 deaths).

The number has fluctuated over the last five years but remains lower than 2020. 

In 2025, there were 830 male drug use deaths in Scotland –  an increase of 19 per cent (131 deaths) from 2024, according to the NRS figures.

Meanwhile, there were 303 female drug use deaths in 2025 – a decrease of 5 per cent (15 deaths) from the previous year. 

Across both sexes, the average age of drug use deaths has increased from 32 years in 2000 to 46 years in 2025.

Age groups 35 to 44 and 45 to 54 continue to have the highest rates of drug use deaths in Scotland.

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.

By 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, when measured over the five-year period 2021 to 2025.

Over 2025, the number of drug use deaths increased in 20 council areas across Scotland, decreased in 10 areas and was unchanged in two areas.

Maree Todd, an SNP MSP and the Scottish Government’s alcohol and drugs minister, raised concerns about an ‘increasingly toxic and unpredictable drugs supply’ in Scotland.

She said: ‘My heartfelt condolences go out to everyone who has lost a loved one to drug use.

‘Each and every death is a tragedy, and even more so because every life lost to drug harms is preventable.

‘Against an increasingly toxic and unpredictable drugs supply, this rise is deeply concerning and unacceptable.

‘The increase in deaths involving cocaine, and the continued threat from dangerous synthetic opioids like nitazenes, must drive more coordinated action across the country.

‘We have taken important steps forward, including funding more than 1,100 residential rehabilitation placements last year and widening access to treatment and life-saving naloxone.

‘However, despite these policy interventions, and the actions of our valued frontline workers, it is clear we need to do much more to reduce this tragic loss of life.

‘Our new Alcohol and Drugs Strategic Plan will strengthen surveillance, deepen links between treatment, housing and other services, and target support at the communities most at risk.

‘I have also announced today that Scotland’s first local drug-checking service will open in Glasgow this October – building on the UK’s first safer drug consumption facility.’

Ms Todd added that while the Scottish Government was ‘using every lever available through our devolved powers’ more powers over drugs must be transferred from Westminster to help tackle the problem.

‘It is clearly now vital that the UK Government work with us to transfer the greater powers over drugs policy that we require to treat drug harms fully as a public health issue,’ she said.