National Mission on Drugs: annual report

Footnotes

1. 477 between April-September 2023 and 461 between Oct 2023 to March 2024

2. Drug-related deaths in Scotland in 2023, National Records of Scotland, August 2024

3. Suspected drug deaths in Scotland, Scottish Government

4. See: A Review of the Existing Literature and Evidence on Young People Experiencing Harms from Alcohol and Drugs in Scotland (www.gov.scot)

5. See, for example: Frontiers article, Parental Substance Abuse As an Early Traumatic Event.

6. See: The latest estimated prevalence of opioid dependence in Scotland between 2014-15 and 2019-20. Also see: The 2023 Lancet article on the mortality among individuals prescribed opioid-agonist therapy in Scotland

7. See: Rapid Action Drug Alerts and Response (RADAR) quarterly report: Rapid Action Drug Alerts and Response (RADAR) quarterly report – April 2024 – Rapid Action Drug Alerts and Response (RADAR) quarterly report – Publications – Public Health Scotland

8. Data from the Needle Exchange Surveillance Initiative shows that while heroin continues to be the most prevalent drug injectiod, cocaine injecting has increased in recent years. Between November 2023 and February 2024, the most frequently detected drug in the ASSIST hospital toxicology project was cocaine (11%).

9. 11 placements published as approved for Harper House in the Q1-2 of 2023-24 PHS Report and 21 in the most recent PHS report (Q3-4 of 2023-24).

10. Where known, 26% of people who had a drug-related death in 2017 and 19% of people who had a drug- related death in 20189 had been in police custody in the six months prior to death. In addition, where known, slightly over half of the 2017 cohort (53%) had ever been in prison and 14% had spent time in prison in the six months prior to death. Source: National Drug Related Death Database, PHS, 2022, https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/national-drug-related-death-database-scotland/the-national-drug-related-deaths-database-scotland-report-analysis-of-deaths-occurring-in-2017-and-2018/

11. Chapter 4 Health & Social Care – Scottish Budget: 2023 to 2024 – gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

12. Baseline funding is included in the total Territorial Board allocation in the published budget.

13. NHS staff pay deal: 2023 to 2024 – gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

14. This project was funded via the Whole Family Wellbeing Funding – Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) – gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

15. Total spend for Cross Government activities in 2023-24 totalled £5.3m. This included £1.25m funding to support SFAD Grow Your Own Routes which was supported through the Whole Family Wellbeing Fund and £3m funding to ADPs to increase Stabilisation Placements. Delivery of Cross-Government activities related to Stabilisation Capacity Fund, Trauma Training and the Concessionary Travel pilot were delayed in 2023-24.

16. Funding in the Drugs Policy Delivery line is £3m less than the figure in 2022-23 due to the cessation of the Taskforce Response fund for ADPs. However, additional funding of £3m was allocated to ADPs for stabilisation through the Cross-Government budget line.

17. These include questions around prioritisation, use of levers, ways of working, outcomes, barriers and facilitators to implementation and an exploration of unintended consequences.