Having the worst drug death rate in Europe is an unwanted status Scotland cannot shake off.

Millions of pounds is being thrown at the problem by the Scottish Government, yet year after year the deaths still remain shamefully high.

The poorest communities in Scotland have 18 times more deaths, but every part of society is affected.

But cocaine use is rapidly on the rise, being added to the daily mix.

In the most recent Scottish data, 93% of all drug deaths had more than one drug present in the body.

In 2008, cocaine was implicated in 6% of deaths.

That’s increased rapidly. By 2021, cocaine was implicated in almost a third of Scotland’s drug deaths.

ITV News understands it will be even higher in this year’s stats due to be published next week.

Want to see more SNP fails? – Health Matters