Date: 12 August 2009 BROCKLEBANK CONDEMNS NEW FIFE DRUG-RELATED DEATH FIGURES The latest drug-related death statistics for Scotland make terrible reading and show that there were 574 drug-related deaths in Scotland last year. This represents a 26% rise from 2007, a 61% rise from 2004 and a 131% rise from 1998.
The statistics for Fife are even worse than the national average. In 2008 there were 37 deaths in Fife, representing a 32% rise from 2007, a 117% rise from 2004 and a 185% rise from 1998.
Commenting, Conservative MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Ted Brocklebank, said;
“These new figures are shocking and highlight the urgent need to change the range of efforts being made to combat Scotland’s terrible drug problem. There has been a large increase in drug-related deaths across Scotland over the past decade and I am particularly concerned to see that Fife is faring even worse than the country as a whole, with a 185% rise in drug-related deaths over the past ten years.
“The policy of the last decade has been to try and manage Scotland’s drug problem through harm reduction and an over-reliance on methadone, which has clearly been ineffective. The Scottish Conservatives have worked to create a new national drugs strategy based on recovery leading to abstinence and these figures show that this change in drug strategy cannot come soon enough for Fife.
“If addicts can receive the help they need then not only will lives stop being needlessly lost, but no longer will families and communities continue to be devastated by the effects of drugs.”
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