SNP 'hellbent on continuing failed approach' to Scotland's drug deaths crisis as fatalities soar
Cocaine and nitazenes have fuelled an increase in Scotland’s drug deaths.
SNP ministers accused of being “hellbent on continuing their failed approach to tackling Scotland’s drug deaths crisis” are under pressure after new figures showed fatalities soared by 11 per cent in a year.
Drugs minister Maree Todd has been urged to overhaul her blueprint for the public health emergency after statistics published by the National Records of Scotland revealed there were 1,133 drug use deaths in 2025, just 206 fewer than the peak of the crisis in 2020.
Scotland remains the drug deaths capital of Europe.
But Ms Todd has issued a stark warning over “an increasingly toxic and unpredictable drugs supply”.
A rising number of drug deaths in Scotland, according to the new statistics, have seen cocaine and synthetic opioids as a contributing factor.
Cocaine was implicated in over half of all drug use deaths in 2025, making up 589 fatalities, an increase of 23 per cent compared with 2024. Nitazenes, a group of highly potent synthetic opioids , were implicated in more than one in five drug use deaths, contributing to 247 deaths in 2025.
As part of Nicola Sturgeon’s “national mission on drugs” an extra £250m was committed by the Scottish government to increase residential rehabilitation, implement treatments standards and support community projects - while millions more is spent on alcohol and drugs services through health and social care partnerships.
But the latest figures show the rate of drug use deaths in the most deprived areas of Scotland was 15 times as high as in the least deprived areas in 2025, after adjusting for age.
There were 21.4 drug use deaths per 100,000 people in 2025, after adjusting for age - four times as high as when the series began in 2000.
Scottish Conservative health and care spokesman, Miles Briggs, has accused SNP ministers of being “hellbent on continuing their failed approach to tackling Scotland’s drug deaths crisis”.
He added: “These horrific figures show the SNP’s approach to tackling Scotland’s drugs deaths crisis has catastrophically failed.
“Scotland’s drug deaths rate remains the worst in Europe and that should shame the SNP.
“And for all their grandstanding and virtue-signalling, it is those in Scotland’s poorest communities who are by far and away the most likely to lose their lives to drugs on the SNP’s watch.”
Scottish Labour health spokesperson, Jackie Baillie, warned that “years have passed since a public health emergency was declared”, adding that it was “shameful that things are still moving in the wrong direction”.
She added: “This is a damning indictment of the Scottish government’s failure to support some of the most marginalised people in Scotland.
“We need to ensure people can access both emergency life-saving care in their hour of need and long-term recovery treatment.
“The SNP has been warned about the danger of synthetic opioids for many years now. They must take responsibility for this crisis and deliver joined-up action to save lives and help people recover.”
Reform UK’s drugs spokesperson for Scotland, Victor Currie, added: Deaths in the most deprived areas - places like Glasgow, Dundee and Inverclyde - are 15 times as high as in the least deprived, the clearest proof of a government that has failed its most vulnerable citizens for back-to-back generations.”
Ms Todd, has warned over the unpredictable supply of drugs in Scotland.
She said: “Against an increasingly toxic and unpredictable drugs supply, this rise is deeply concerning and unacceptable.
“The increase in deaths involving cocaine, and the continued threat from dangerous synthetic opioids like nitazenes, must drive more coordinated action across the country.”
READ MORE: Scotland is already Europe's drug-deaths capital – and without action it’s about to get worse
Ms Todd added: “We have taken important steps forward, including funding more than 1,100 residential rehabilitation placements last year and widening access to treatment and life-saving naloxone. However, despite these policy interventions, and the actions of our valued frontline workers, it is clear we need to do much more to reduce this tragic loss of life.
“Our new alcohol and drugs strategic plan will strengthen surveillance, deepen links between treatment, housing and other services, and target support at the communities most at risk. I have also announced today that Scotland's first local drug-checking service will open in Glasgow this October - building on the UK's first safer drug consumption facility.”
Asked earlier on Wednesday about former first minister Nicola Sturgeon’s admission in 2021 that the Government took its “eye off the ball”, Ms Todd said: “My eye is absolutely on the ball.”
But she admitted there was “absolutely no getting away from how painful it is to be standing here in front of you today and looking at a rise in drugs deaths”, adding that she would not “shy away from responsibility”.
The drugs minister said there should be “no reason” why people with addiction should struggle to access rehab, saying cash had been given to councils and that “money should be no object”.
She added: “What I absolutely commit to do is to redouble my efforts to keep working on all of the things that I know will make a difference right across the suite of our efforts, and we will make progress.”
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