Shameful statistics show work still needed

SCOTLAND'S endless drug deaths crisis is the single greatest shame hanging over this small nation.

- BY MARK McGIVERN Chief Reporter

Professor Catriona Matheson here describes failings of a £25Omillion, five-year National Mission - set up by the first minister Nicola Sturgeon in 2021 as a direct response to campaigning by the Daily Record.

The mission was to cut the death fate - the key metric the Scottish Government said it would be judged by - but a dip in overdose deaths in 2022 now appears to have been a false dawn.

We're still the European drug death capital by a mile.