Suspected Drug Deaths in Scotland: April to June 2024

3. Main points

Figure 1: The rolling 12-month total number of suspected drug deaths has been broadly stable over recent quarters.

Note: Q1 is January to March, Q2 is April to June, Q3 is July to September, Q4 is October to December. Source: Police Scotland.

Between January and June 2024:

• There were 589 suspected drug deaths, 2% (11) fewer than during the same period of 2023.
• Males accounted for 74% of suspected drug deaths. This compares with 72% between January and June 2023.
• There were 154 suspected drug deaths of females, a decrease of 10% (17) compared to the same period in 2023.
• A majority (63%) of suspected drug deaths were of people aged between 35 and 54. This is broadly in line with previous quarters.
• There were 22 suspected drug deaths in the under 25 age group, 15% (4) fewer than between January and June 2023.
• The Police Divisions with the greatest number of suspected drug deaths were: Greater Glasgow (133), Lanarkshire (60), Edinburgh City (56).

For quarter 2 2024, April to June 2024:

• There were 269 suspected drug deaths recorded, 16% (51) fewer than the previous calendar quarter (January to March 2024) and 11% (33) fewer than the same calendar quarter in the previous year (April to June 2023).

Note that numbers of suspected drug deaths fluctuate from quarter to quarter. Care should be taken not to interpret movements between individual calendar quarters as indicative of any long-term trend.

There were 1,186 suspected drug deaths over the 12 months to June 2024, 5% (56) more than the 12 months to June 2023.

More detail on the statistics presented above is available in the workbook presented alongside this report here.