Dundee's political leaders say they intend to proceed studying classes from the town's drug deaths after it was as soon as once more topped the overdose capital of Scotland. A complete of 52 drug-related deaths had been recorded for final 12 months, down from 57 in 2020.
Nonetheless, a median of 45.2 deaths per 100,000 individuals have been recorded yearly over the past 5 years, greater than seven instances the speed between 2000 and 2004. Civic leaders have been criticised for the tempo at which they're tackling the town's drug dying emergency.
Earlier this 12 months the Dundee Medication Fee slammed native our bodies for going "far sufficient, deep sufficient or quick sufficient" of their response to the Fee's authentic suggestions printed in 2020. The Scottish Authorities has beforehand hinted that it may intervene within the metropolis's method to tackling drug deaths if change is not readily obvious.
SNP administration chief and Dundee Partnership chair Cllr John Alexander has welcomed the "encouraging" drop in deaths for the second 12 months in a row. However he maintained that the town is as much as the problem introduced by substance misuse.
He stated: "Every particular person dying has an impression on household and associates left behind. There have been and stay too many of those tragedies in Dundee regardless of a year-on-year fall in numbers.
“Metropolis businesses are working exhausting to additional scale back drug deaths and we at the moment are bolstering and widening the methods by which we sort out these issues and help people. We glance to be taught classes from each single drug dying within the metropolis."
Alcohol and drug consultants are presently getting ready a brand new five-year strategic plan for tackling drug use in Dundee having vowed earlier this 12 months to "ship transformative change" in drug providers. Pledges embrace a promise to maneuver drug providers out of the much-derided Structure Home and into communities and to make sure assist with drug points is extra broadly obtainable throughout public providers.
The weather of Dundee's response to the drug emergency which were rolled out have been praised, together with a non-fatal overdose "fast response workforce" that goals to supply overdose survivors with wrap-around help to scale back the chance of a repeat. Take-home naloxone - an "anti-overdose" drug that may reverse the worst results of opioid abuse - can also be broadly obtainable.
Cllr Ken Lynn, who chairs Dundee's built-in joint board, added: “Our ambition is to make Dundee a Metropolis of Restoration, the place we are able to begin to transfer on from a long time of struggling and sit up for a brand new future. We've to keep in mind that it is a long-term technique to attempt to clear up issues which have been with us for generations.
"Nobody company can sort out these decades-old issues on their very own, and there's no one easy answer that may be utilized in a brief timescale. I'm conscious that there are frustrations concerning the state of affairs, however our resolve wants to stay agency.”
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North East Labour MSP Michael Marra, a former Dundee councillor, stated of the stats: "These dying figures for Dundee are painful to learn. Seven instances as many individuals died from medicine than in 2000-04. The federal government should hearken to consultants, implement MAT [medication-assisted treatment] requirements now and reform providers instantly. No extra speaking retailers."
North East Tory MSP Maurice Golden added: "Any drop in medicine deaths is welcome. However let’s not child ourselves, the newest figures nonetheless level to the second worst 12 months on file for Scotland. The necessity for motion continues to be very actual."
Total, Scotland's drug deaths toll fell by simply 9 in 2021 to 1,330. Medication minister Angela Constance stated the state of affairs was "unacceptable", including: "Whereas there may be a lot extra work to do, each life saved means one much less household grieving and I'm decided we are able to use this halt within the upward pattern of current years as a platform for actual change."
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