// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
Drug deaths rise sharply in Scotland as figures remain worst in Europe
Deaths related to illicit drugs rose by 11% in Scotland last year to 1,133 as the country struggles to tackle the worst fatality rate in Europe.
National Records of Scotland (NRS) said the figure for 2025, external was 116 higher than the previous year, bringing the total deaths in a decade to more than 11,000.
After adjusting for age, there were 214 drug-related deaths per million people.
NRS defines drug-related deaths as those where the underlying cause was drug poisoning, a controlled substance was in the body at the time of death, and drug use led directly to the death.
Efforts to save lives over the past year have been hampered by criminal gangs mixing powerful synthetic opioids such as nitazenes with existing drugs including heroin, cocaine and fake Valium pills.
Nitazenes were implicated in 247 deaths in 2025 - more than 22% of the total. The figure had more than trebled from 76 deaths the previous year.
Opiates and opioids, such as heroin, continued to be the most common type of drug implicated in deaths, accounting for 78% of the total.
Cocaine was implicated in 52% of deaths, the highest figure since NRS began publishing specific data in 2008.
NRS said the increase in deaths - which came after a 13% fall in 2024 - had been driven by a rise in deaths of male drug users. This increased by 19%, while the rate of female deaths fell by 5%.
The rate of drug-related deaths in the most deprived areas of Scotland was 15 times as high as in the least deprived areas.