The Scottish Government has allocated £1.1m to the Aberlour Children’s Charity for perinatal support and recovery services, Public Health Scotland has announced. It is also making £750,000 available via the Corra Foundation to improve access to women’s services in Glasgow.
The funding allocation is in recognition of the ‘unique challenges faced by women who use drugs’, the government states. Winning Scotland’s Planet Youth initiative will also receive £750,000 for its work in ‘creating environments that support young people in creating healthy choices’, as part of the government’s commitment to early intervention.
While the most recent Scottish drug death statistics, which were published earlier this month, showed a 13 per cent decrease on 2023’s figure, the total still stood at more than 1,100. However, provisional figures for March to May this year have already shown a 15 per cent increase on the previous quarter, with Scottish Ambulance Service naloxone incidents also up by 45 per cent.
‘I want to express my deepest condolences to the family, friends and loved ones of the 1,107 people who lost their lives to drugs in 2024,’ said drugs policy minister Maree Todd. ‘Our national mission on drugs has delivered a number of positive developments, including widening access to life-saving naloxone kits to reverse overdoses and creating more residential rehabilitation beds. It is welcome that we have seen progress with the number of deaths at the lowest level since 2017, but these tragic drug deaths figures remind us, however, that there is much more to do.’
Looking beyond 2026, when the national mission is set to end, the ‘urgency of sustained action cannot be overstated’, said Scottish Drugs Forum CEO Kirsten Horsburgh when the drug deaths figures were announced. ‘This is not a problem that can be solved within the lifespan of a parliamentary cycle or an electoral term. Policy cannot be at the mercy of political timetables or electioneering. What Scotland needs is a bold, long-term strategy, spanning 15 to 20 years, to address the structural inequalities and social conditions that drive drug-related deaths.’