1,133 people died from drugs last year

Responding to new figures showing that there were 1,113 drug deaths in Scotland in 2025, an increase of 11% (116 deaths) compared to the year before, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said:

“This is an extremely painful and upsetting day for families across the country.

“The rate of lives claimed by drugs is higher than anywhere else in Europe. Almost 100 people a month are dying.

“The SNP Government should never have taken their eye off the ball. We're now five years into their national mission to tackle this and the crisis has taken a major turn for the worse. I've been warning the government about nitazenes for almost three years. These synthetic drugs are hundreds of times more powerful than heroin.

“Scottish Liberal Democrats want to see a national rollout of safer drugs consumption centres - facilities which have been proven to save lives. We also need to see multi-year funding for all drug and alcohol services and long-overdue drug checking services to reduce the risk of accidental overdoses.

“There is no shortage of powers that the Scottish Government has at its disposal to end this crisis and stop people dying. This loss of life must compel them to finally make the most of those powers and deliver the world-class drug services Scotland deserves."