Why does Scotland have such a massive drugs problem?

[TheTallOakTrees]

3 people die in Scotland every day due to drugs year.
The worse place in Europe.
Why?

Maybe because, "It's shite being Scottish! We're the lowest of the low, the scum of the fucking earth!" according to Ewan Macgregor in Trainspotting.

I read a comment from a scientist ( cant find it now) that in Scotland the high level of drinking contributes as drugs and alcohol combine to increase the mortality rate

Ah I think you've got it! NI in particular is well known for its total lack of religious sectarianism affecting peoples life chances and leading to feelings of hopelessness.

One issue, the point is the Scotland's more troubled areas have multiple layers of historical issues converging at one place, in single families. With no avenue to resist, perhaps some youth turn their frustration and despair inwards.

I feel like the answer some want to hear in these sorts of conversations is "oh, Scottish people are more genetically predisposed to becoming junkies amirite" and I find that really viscerally unpleasant - and obviously factually wrong.

It's inexcusable - the Scottish gov amalgamated police to one force, they don't seem to get a mention in this which I don't understand. Every so often a car is stopped on the motorway with large quantities of drugs (presumably info from customs check or somewhere) but otherwise it seems to be allowed to run riot with no police control also stolen prescription drugs. Or at least there is no mention of police in local papers, perhaps elsewhere they do do things.

Bits of the north of England are similar.

But not similar in the rate of drug related deaths.

Oh shes at it again. "not within our power''.

I work in a similar field to drug rehab and the problem is always 'what are people going to do with their time?' You get them clean, you send them out to a social housing HMO place and you give them just enough benefits to eat and drink. And then? What?
These people who have been addicts for ten years plus aren't suddenly equipped to get jobs. Very often they have no social contacts accept for other addicts, they get lonely, they want friends. How the fuck else does a 59 year old single man who's done crack for the last twenty plus years make friends? Society is not geared up to include these people. It's really sad but they will almost inevitably start using again, due to boredom, loneliness, past trauma, isolation and despair. Scotland's figures are just higher I imagine through government policy and the sheer amount of users plus lack of opportunities.

Is perpetual victimhood tiring? Picsinred?

Ah I think you've got it! NI in particular is well known for its total lack of religious sectarianism affecting peoples life chances and leading to feelings of hopelessness.

Are you actually from the UK? Because you have some weird ideas about it.

NI definitely makes for an interesting comparison. Similar climate, economic situation fairly similar, industrial decline around Belfast. Historically the protestant settlers mostly came from Scotland. Same legal framework. And yet a very different story on drugs.

@AiyaNapawithmorenaps

I work in a similar field to drug rehab and the problem is always 'what are people going to do with their time?' You get them clean, you send them out to a social housing HMO place and you give them just enough benefits to eat and drink. And then? What? These people who have been addicts for ten years plus aren't suddenly equipped to get jobs. Very often they have no social contacts accept for other addicts, they get lonely, they want friends. How the fuck else does a 59 year old single man who's done crack for the last twenty plus years make friends? Society is not geared up to include these people. It's really sad but they will almost inevitably start using again, due to boredom, loneliness, past trauma, isolation and despair. Scotland's figures are just higher I imagine through government policy and the sheer amount of users plus lack of opportunities.

No idea. Community projects to feel included in rebuilding the areas they live in. Needs funding and lots of support but if it saves lives it needs doing.

@BrozTito

Is perpetual victimhood tiring? Picsinred?

Exhausting. Berocca helps.

@ElephantOfRisk

They cut the budget for drug treatment yet have the biggest drug problem in Europe. Seriously if that is accurate someone must hd them to account. How do they get away with that then!

It is accurate and some token numpty got the sack last year. They get away with it because of "wheest for Indy". Doesn't matter what they do, a core of the population will keep voting for them to deliver independence.

It's awful. Time to stop focusing on Indy and focus on saving lives. Surely this is more important than Indy? People are dying in huge numbers. I wish people would hold those responsible to account just blaming others or deflecting blame really won't save lives.

“I feel like the answer some want to hear in these* sorts of conversations is "oh, Scottish people are more genetically predisposed to becoming junkies amirite" and I find that really viscerally unpleasant - and obviously factually wrong.”

That's ridiculous but it does feed nicely into your attitude of “us poor downtrodden Scots”.

The problem is that once drug culture takes hold, it becomes quite visible within certain groups and then becomes normalised and then expected. Towns and cities are quite small so its very difficult for people to physically remove themselves from previous friends and escape. It's all too easy to get dragged back in.

There is a great documentary on exactly this - Liverpool was saturated with drugs and filtered into nearby cities so heroin became so cheap depression mining and factories closing saw communities hit and targeted

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow_effect

The Glasgow effect.

@ElephantOfRisk

It's mainstream news now so about time they acted. Shame they took so long to bother

It was mainstream last year and yet here we are...again...

Yes I do remember the same story last year. Nothing has changed.

Treating it as a criminal justice instead of a health issue probably makes things worse though that won't explain the differential effects compared with other nations.

Bits of everywhere are similar and i'm sure your average junkie isn't sitting there worrying about the historical issues that have brought him or her to this point. It's real life issues of despair, poverty, poor health, poor education, lack of opportunities etc that are at the root of this. All these things and the info on rising drugs deaths have been in the SNP power for 14 years and their only action on drugs is to cut funding. Not much action on anything else either but let's not worry about that, let's have a hate crime bill and piss money away on court cases or failed ferries or whatever else. And yet people still vote for them thinking they will deliver the shitstorm that independence would bring. They slag off the Tories in England but they are not sitting with this issue are they? Plenty of deprivation etc in England.

@FlyingScott your post is bordering on offensive. Tell your child to get a grip perhaps? Is he never going to enter a city centre in his life? Because many of them contain evidence of drugs problems staring you in the face. What a drip.

I’m sure you can tell from my post that I’m Scottish and from some of these posts you’d think we were all going around like the walking dead. Yes there are certain towns/areas of towns you’ll see the odd junkie but surely it’s the same in most places?

@Thecurtainsofdestiny

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow_effect

The Glasgow effect.

Thanks @Thecurtainsofdestiny, that's really interesting, and a whole catalogue of plausible ideas.

Poor aspirations over many generations due to high unemployment when traditional employers closed like the shipyards, leading to schemes of poor housing, poor educational attainment and teenage gangs. A toxic hard masculine culture of never showing weakness and hard drinking being seen as the norm.
The snp doing very little,and have had plenty of time to actually do anything to improve Scotland , Nicola talks a good game but the results speak for themselves, highest drug rate and hopelessness of generations with poor mental health . They blame the Westminster Govt for things that are actually devolved, meaning ,it’s the equivalent answer of … a big boy did it and ran away, every time they are asked why things are so bad! I am horrified that anyone could look at our inner cities, that the SNP councils run, and think they would do a good job if we were independent? If you do think they are doing well, take a walk into Glasgow the once beautiful streets of Argyle St and Union St are a complete disgrace, actually so sad to witness. We deserve so much better.

addiction is actually genetic, if you have an addictive personality it is likely your offspring will be the same,
you are addicted to alcohol/drugs
your family grow up a) thinking being pished is the norm
and even if you are no long in that family, it is genetic.

@PicsInRed

Ah I think you've got it! NI in particular is well known for its total lack of religious sectarianism affecting peoples life chances and leading to feelings of hopelessness.

One issue, the point is the Scotland's more troubled areas have multiple layers of historical issues converging at one place, in single families. With no avenue to resist, perhaps some youth turn their frustration and despair inwards.

I feel like the answer some want to hear in these sorts of conversations is "oh, Scottish people are more genetically predisposed to becoming junkies amirite" and I find that really viscerally unpleasant - and obviously factually wrong.

I’ve not seen anyone on this thread saying that Scottish people are predisposed to being junkies or deserving of it but your 1st year sociology student take on it doesn’t really stand up to scrutiny.

Blaming sectarianism when large parts of the country like Dundee and Edinburgh outside the sectarian west of Scotland have traditionally seen huge levels of drug abuse in a way that the true centre of sectarian unrest Northern Ireland hasn’t. And your comment about multigenerational poverty and lack of hope for youth apply to much of the north of England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

It’s an interesting multifaceted question why the problem is so much worse in Scotland and I’m not claiming to have the answers but your proposals whilst interesting are not very credible. I suspect it’s a variety of factors which combine to make it a particular problem here.

Is it a lack of social mobility that when you come out of rehab and go back to where your family and friends are, your dealers are there too?

I think this is one of the biggest factors. Often the friends and family of drug takers are drug takers themselves. Once in that circle, it's incredibly difficult to get back out of, as someone else said towns and cities are small. If you don't have a decent income (which people with substance abuse problems usually don't) it's very hard to up and move from it. So it's often a case of integrate straight back into that environment, or sit about at home with little money and little else do to until they eventually give in (because what else is there to do?) and end up back where they were before. It's easy to say get a job etc but it's not that easy to do. There's so little support for people to come off drugs, but even less for people to stay off them.

@AbsolutelyPatsy I agree. I grew up with no input from my father. My mum was a teetotal Christian. I have never been able to just have one of anything. It's a feeling inside, a lack of impulse control, a 'never wanting the party to end/ life is for living' mentality. When I met my father at 13 for the first time everything made sense, he was an alcoholic and I ended up having alcohol problems despite only spending 5 hours in his company in 30 years. 100% genetic. No one else in my family drinks.