Scotland’s drug deaths are the second highest on record despite a small decrease in numbers.

1,330 people lost their lives to drug misuse in 2021, according to latest figures published by National Records of Scotland (NRS) – just nine fewer than the previous year.

The stats show a decrease of less than 1% on the previous year’s statistics, and the second largest number since records began in 1996, making it the first year since 2013 in which drug misuse deaths have not increased.

Scotland’s death rate remains the worst in Europe and five times the rate in England.

Last year’s figures showed that 2020 was the seventh year in a row that drug-related deaths hit record levels.

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