Drug Deaths: Can Scotland Learn From Germany?

[Joey]

Scotland's drug crisis spirals out of control — DW

In Scotland, Europe’s drug death capital, progress is painfully slow on setting up drug consumption rooms.

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Drug consumption rooms allow addicts to use safely. In Germany, they’re common; but in Scotland — Europe’s drug death capital — progress is painfully slow.


In 1996, Trainspotting terrified and transfixed with its heady portrayal of substance abuse in urban Scotland. Today, cinematic fiction has given way to statistical reality, and the nation battles a spiraling drugs crisis with no end in sight.


More than 1,200 Scots lost their lives in drug-related cases last year, new figures reveal, the highest number since records began, and over three-and-a-half times that of the UK as a whole. Staggeringly, Scotland's substance mortality rate is now 15 times that of the European average.

In Germany, drug deaths remain relatively low — yet usage trends are similar to those of Scotland. In both, opiates (like heroin) are often mixed with cocaine and other powerful stimulants, and addicts tend to be of a similar age, having first got hooked in the ‘80s and ‘90s.


There is, however, one fundamental difference: drug consumption rooms (DCRs).

 

[Joey]

Because of safe consumption sites, drug deaths are lower in Germany at similar rates of use. The operation of these sites across the world has saved many lives and will continue to do so across the world so long as drug policy changes for progress.