Scotland’s drug deaths scandal driven by capitalism, poverty and cuts

Lynda McEwan

Scotland continues to be the drugs death capital of Europe for the sixth year in a row. 1,172 people lost their lives due to drugs last year.  The figure might be the second lowest since 2017 but it is a sharp increase of 12% from the previous year.

This is despite the Scottish government’s Drug Deaths Taskforce concluding its work in 2022 with an aesthetically pleasing 135-page report that recommended a full implementation of new Medication Assisted Treatment standards within two years, developing a naloxone network and more funding for a public health approach instead of criminalisation.

While Socialist Party Scotland supports these measures, they don’t go far enough and by themselves have done very little to halt the continuation of drug deaths, two years on.

While the report did recognise poverty as a major factor in addiction, and that more public funding is needed, it has no strategy for how to win more money from either the Scottish government or from Westminster.

Glasgow has the highest drug deaths rates followed by Dundee, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire and West Dumbartonshire all in the top five.

These are the areas of Scotland where poverty is rife and budget cuts and deindustrialisation have torn the heart out of communities. Conversely the areas with the lowest figures are East Renfrewshire and East Dunbartonshire, both more affluent areas with lower levels of unemployment.

The drug death scandal is also intrinsically linked to the housing crisis, the mental health crisis and the chronic underfunding of the NHS that are being exacerbated by the SNP-led Scottish government’s passing on cuts from the Tories and now Starmer’s Labour.

These multiple crises are firmly rooted in the capitalist system that the SNP and Labour try to manage but are utterly incapable of solving the social and economic problems facing people.

The Scottish government’s drug policy largely follows the UK government’s war on drugs, criminalising the Individual drug user rather than addressing the systemic underlying problems that disproportionately targets working class and marginalised communities.

The drug death crisis is not an isolated phenomenon either, but part of a global capitalist system that benefits from the lucrative illegal drug trafficking industry. The international drug market is fuelled by imperialist wars, climate disaster and increasing inequality, all part of capitalism.

Socialist Party Scotland say that the SNP Scottish government and local councils could use all the financial mechanisms at their disposal to set no cuts/needs budgets that stave off the worst affects of austerity.

They could mobilise a campaign along with the trade unions and working class communities to demand back the millions stolen in cuts by central government. 

With these funds they could then invest heavily in good quality housing, well paid jobs at the rate of inflation and in public services.

A national drug treatment and recovery centre with offices in most towns could be built providing harm reduction services, mental health facilities and rehabilitation all linked together so that addicts don’t get lost in a system that is fractured and not fit for purpose.

Ultimately, only the socialist transformation of society where the huge wealth that exists in society is used for the benefit of the working class under a planned economy can eradicate the conditions where drug use is more attractive than participating usefully in society.

Such a planned economy would also bring the pharmaceutical industry under democratic workers’ control and management.