We demanded action on Covid – so where is the outcry over drug-related deaths?

Unlike with Covid where we collectively demanded political action, don’t expect any such surge in public or political outrage towards this year’s record rise in drug fatalities, writes Ian Hamilton

A sign at the Scottish Drugs Conference being held at the Scottish Events Campus (SEC) in Glasgow (PA)

Yet another record has been broken, not an Olympic one but a drug-related one. For the ninth consecutive year, poisonings due to drugs in England and Wales are at record levels. This year’s tally shows 4,561 dying as a result of using drugs such as heroin, cocaine or diazepam, a rise of 3.8 per cent on last year. Last week, Scotland also recorded a record rise in drug-related deaths.

We’ve become desensitised to reports of deaths with Covid wreaking havoc on so many individuals and their families. At its peak, we heard daily reports of hundreds of deaths due to the virus. This familiarity with premature mortality has the potential to overshadow the lives cut short by drug use, not least due to the blame that some will cast on those who have succumbed to drugs.

“They brought it on themselves”, or “it was their choice to use drugs” and other such misinformed and heartless views are still widely held.