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?

it has escalated significantly since about 2014, prior to this there was a small but steady rise, I wonder if this matches when they decided to start reducing funding? We could do a FOI request but Scot gov seem to avoid answering those. Funny that.

@mathanxiety

And availability of cheap drugs feeds the problem.

Are the police or customs officers on the take? I'm guessing deaths are the tip of the iceberg, with vast numbers of users and huge profits rolling in.

Where do you even start with such a vast number of drug dealers and users? You cut off one supply and another pops straight up. The police could probably ignore all other crimes for a month to focus on drugs and still get nowhere.

There area about 90,000 prison places in the UK, what do you do with the hundreds of thousands of users and suppliers?

I don’t know and don’t know if it’s helpful to speculate. The rates seems to have risen drastically since 2014 - could be as simple as a change in the way they’re counted compared to other areas. There isn’t any reason to think scotland as a whole is drastically different to the rest of the uk.

No, the party faithful tried the "oh we count them differently" last year, it was debunked. The figures are the figures. It really is that bad.

One factor is a lot of unhealed intergenerational trauma I think, going back at least as far as the Highland Clearances and the Potato Famine, both are big reasons why a lot of people ended up in the locations they did having been displaced. Clan society is very different to urban/industrial life and relatively recent in parts of Scotland.

Then add in lots of movement into traditional industrial areas, then slum clearances then the decline of industry. Just as one new identity was really developing and being handed down based on place or occupation it vanished again.

In a way not dissimilar to some of the the reasons behind high rates of alcoholism in Native American populations. What happened in Scotland is obviously not comparable in a lot of ways (it’s not genocide for example) but the loss of traditional ways of life and then also the ways of life that took their place can’t help.

I don't have any links to support this, but I remember hearing an academic suggesting that one of the reasons for Scotland's drugs problem was that our national psyche is characterised by extremes: we're quick to anger if provoked (high rates of knife violence in some parts, although work has been done to reduce those); we consume alcohol to excess; we consume unhealthy food to excess; we consume drugs to excess. Whether it not it's genetic (a pp linked to the Glasgow Effect) who knows. But interesting nonetheless.

Lack of sunlight. Seriously.

Just watched the ITV video, heartbreaking.

At 15, I moved from a quiet easy fife village to Glasgow, at home I knew of only 1 addict, at 17 in Glasgow I became a support worker at inglefield street hostel, how they employed me fuck nows, my unknown naievety was probably sky high but I was strangely street smart. It's been nearly 15 years since I left there and I Google some of my ladies a lot. I can certainly think of a couple that I've no doubt will be dead by now.

I can't even think of the name of the rehab unit we used, ( just near the Hamish allan centre) we were lucky to get two in a year.

@Winnona the rate of drug misuse is 18 times higher in deprived areas of Scotland. ACEs (adverse childhood experiences) play a huge part in this problem. Drugs legislation is not devolved and it needs to be.
@ElephantOfRisk I believe a lot of the rise is due to the Trainspotting generation getting older and frailer- "The average age of drug-related deaths has increased from 32 to 43 over the last 20 years."

Personally I think it's a combination of

Lax social responsibility (fed up of the, addicts are victims and clearly have no autonomy rubbish) now you can emphasise and try to help but people need to stop bloody acting as if them shooting up heroin couldn't be helped. There's too much sympathy and allowance for drug culture behaviour. When i was 15 I wouldn't have known what half the street drugs were or where too find them. Now shooting up or popping pills is seen as normal, and at younger ages. It's seen firstly as some sort of out of control illness rather than a lifestyle choice leading to illness and criminality that people willingly made. So why would you not do it if your life is a bit shit? You're a tragic figure people have to feel sorry for. How exciting.

Oh and people will go nuts on me but there's plenty of addicts that do not meet a rehab bed criteria because they are feckless and will just not truly want help in that time or make any rehab effort.... sorry. Truth is uncomfortable. CMHT try to prepare them for it but that suggestion is right around the time they decide to well and truly disengage...

Higher alcohol costs, though that also didn't reduce the amount of alcoholics so meh.

Cheaper drugs, seriously. Ridiculously cheap and most people get started on even cheaper legal medication abuse. Don't know why they are cheaper up here but they are- mind you next cheapest has been from cumbria-yorkshire county lines route (cmht worker we've dealt with county lines people before) so that geography may have something to do with it

Poorer and also less educated areas. Mums family and me from a rough estate but my mums family emphasised work + learning... yet it's obvious (as in even locals not mh professionals casually talk about it) there's mums from school gates who take cocodomol (when they don't need it) to get high... yeah really. And those that see any form of education beyond basics as 'snobby'. The kids all have fantastic potential. But few if any will achieve it due to the culture they are growing up in. It's also very tribal like, even the idea of moving town or commuting for a job is laughable tbh.

So yeah. Combination but after working in CMHT I truly believe the casual attitude towards it all and public glamour/misplaced sympathy has made this worse.

@ElephantOfRisk I believe a lot of the rise is due to the Trainspotting generation getting older and frailer- "The average age of drug-related deaths has increased from 32 to 43 over the last 20 years."

Not sure what point you are making here, is it okay that they died because they were addicts before the SNP came to power? Or is 43 now an acceptable age to die?

We've had the crocodile tears about about all the age 80 plus people that were killed because of the SNPs decisions not to test people leaving hospital for covid but it's okay that the average drug death age has risen to 43?

Decimation of the mining industry didn't help and other industries in Scotland over the years. Jobs removed from those who worked hard, livelihoods taken away etc. What do you expect? It's endemic right across the Central Belt!!!

Fluegalla.. That's interesting, I agree until the causes are looked at there is no hope, cycles need to be broken when dc very young.

@mathanxiety

Trauma is at the root of addiction. As long as violent or neglectful parents exist there will be addicts.

I’m sure that is true but then there are families of 3 or 4 children brought up much the same and one becomes an addict or alcoholic. Some of these families are functional (or whatever the opposite of dysfunctional is) some are dysfunctional but why do some of the children become addict and some don’t? Also there are lots of people who’ve suffered trauma who don’t become addicts or alcoholics.

@ElephantOfRisk Where did I say it was acceptable? I quoted statistics because I think it's important to realise that many of the people who are dying have longstanding, heartbreaking issues, or maybe they're just seeking sympathy as @ButterflyCat2028 clearly believes.

Because thanks to the SNP and their shitty policies it's now cheaper to use drugs than alcohol so all the people who previously would be getting shitfaced on cheap cider now can't afford alcohol so they turn to drugs.

Of course the affluent middle classes can still afford alcohol and there is still a massive problem with alcohol dependency.

they used to be a nation of steel workers/ship builders.
how much of that is left?

@BlancheB

Because thanks to the SNP and their shitty policies it's now cheaper to use drugs than alcohol so all the people who previously would be getting shitfaced on cheap cider now can't afford alcohol so they turn to drugs.

Of course the affluent middle classes can still afford alcohol and there is still a massive problem with alcohol dependency.

Valid point👌

[quote Downton57]**@ElephantOfRisk* Where did I say it was acceptable? I quoted statistics because I think it's important to realise that many of the people who are dying have longstanding, heartbreaking issues, or maybe they're just seeking sympathy as @ButterflyCat2028* clearly believes.[/quote]
That's why the question marks as I couldn't see what point you were making. Still plenty of young folk dying too but totally agree that drug use is a long term problem but the amount dying has increased at the same time that SNP decided to reduce funding when the figures were clear.

@AbsolutelyPatsy

they used to be a nation of steel workers/ship builders. how much of that is left?

SFA.

Countries on the Atlantic seaboard have a tendency to drink - Scotland, Ireland, Norway so maybe a genetic link. But we have a ridiculous attitude in Scotland 'ye canny deny a man a drink', 'we enjoy a wee swalla'' etc when we need to start moving to a different society. Fun without drink.
The acceptance of heavy drinking makes it easier to accept or turn a blind eye to drugs. I couldn't finish reading Shuggie Bain - many thought it wonderful, imv it was such a miserable, pathetic existence.
And the lack of respect for education. And the 'ill behave any way I want and if you don't like it you can xxxx xxx' - defence of the drunken feckless lifestyle.
I think the Gov are hamstrung in their 'proud Scots' stance - if they criticise any parts of Scottish society (eg described earlier) they risk a backlash from their pro independence voters.

Cheaper to manufacture everything in China.

they used to be a nation of steel workers/ship builders.

Well Glasgow was. And this is the case in other parts of Britain. Plus we've had a huge oil industry ( huge for a country the size of Scotland) as far as employment is concerned.
Banking was huge until relatively recently but not mentioned as you can't blame the U.K. gov for its demise.

A lot of these posts are making it seem like middle/ upper class people never become drug addicts. They absolutely do. I've seen parents pay for expensive rehabs, send their children literally across the world to get clean and not understand why it doesn't work. The difference (in my opinion) is the sort of life that money can offer if you do succeed in getting clean. Being on benefits in a bedsit vs being on drugs in a bedsit, I can see what I would choose. If mum and pa were going to set me up with a surf school in Cornwall and pay my rent for five years whilst I recovered then it might be a bit different. For some though this might never be enough of an incentive.

'Trainspotting' as a way of life.
Depression and apathy.
Kids growing up far too quickly. 10yo on drugs! My kids at 10 were innocent as babies and not much more at 14.
Anger and anti establishmentism as a norm.

Thats just my opinion btw.