Drug deaths rise again under the SNP

Scotland’s drug misuse deaths – the worst in Europe – have long been a stain on the Scottish government’s record. Today it just got worse. The latest figures show a shocking 12 per cent increase in drug deaths to 1,172. It dashes hopes that last year’s dip in mortality showed that the problem was easing.

It’s all about poverty and deprivation, say politicians quoting the various drug charities who insist drug addiction should be treated as a social disease. But this doesn’t explain why the Scottish death rate is three times that of England's. Scotland is not three times more deprived. Nor is it down to Westminster cuts, as nationalists invariably claim. Scotland continues to receive about 20 per cent more per head in public expenditure than England.