Super-strength drugs fuelling new wave of Scottish overdose deaths
Health chiefs are calling for the urgent creation of drug checking services as a wave of new drugs wreak havoc on Scotland's streets.
Public Health Scotland believes our shameful drug death rate, which had improved in recent years, could be set to explode again as synthetic and deadly nitazenes contaminate the market.
The opiates can be 500 times as strong as heroin and are being seen in more and more deaths.
But experts believe the true toll of harm is being drastically underestimated because of the rapid way the new drugs leave the bodies of those who have died of overdoses.
Dr Tara Shivaji, authored the Consultant in Public Health Medicine, authored the latest Rapid Action Drug Alerts and Response (RADAR) quarterly report, which detailed a devastating 15% rise in drug deaths from March to May this year.
The data shows a 'rapidly evolving, toxic and unpredictable drug supply', with more overdose deaths and a big shift towards nitazenes - which are now contaminating the supply of many different drugs.
Dr Shivaji said Scotland needs to wake up to the 'global challenge' that super strength synthetic drugs pose and to out in place checking stations.
She said: 'Where drugs are checked, most drugs will contain more than what they're sold to be. It's it's really difficult for people to know what, what's in the substances that they're taking.
'It's therefore difficult for services to then support them.
'As it stands, when we see increases in harm and we think there's something new being introduced into a local drug supply, we're just not able to confirm that. And so that means what we can do is really quite limited.
'The evidence from areas with drug checking is that people can get their substances checked and make a choice and take much more proactive, much more targeted harm reduction action.
'But it also makes a difference at the community level, where the availability of this intelligence changes the market and reduces the risks, and that's been demonstrated in Canada, and that's really part of why we are advocating for drug checking.'
Dr Shivaji said she could not rule out a new record in overdose deaths happening, despite many thousands of deaths already in Scotland.
Although nitazenes have been found in just six per cent of death in the first quarter of 2025, Dr Shivaji said this is likely to be a gross underestimate.
She said: 'We aren't scientifically sure about the stability of nitazenes and our toxicology colleagues tell us that it's possible that if the body has lain for a while and blood samples are taken after a prolonged period, the nitazines might not be detected.
'The other concern they have is about the potency, as it doesn't take very much to cause an overdose, and therefore it can be more difficult to detect when you're looking for that in a in a sample.
'So we are likely to be presenting an underestimate of the impact.'
Dr Shivaji said that in 2022, when nitazenes first appeared, they were localised - but they are now found all over Scotland and in all kinds of drugs.
She said: 'We found it in heroin, we found it in street benzodiazepines and we're also finding it in fake pharma.'
One major concern that has come to light is the finding of heroin in cocaine - meaning a massive risk of overdose for users who have not built any tolerance to opiates.
And another new threat has emerged through the way the opiate antidote drug Naloxone is being dulled by the presence of nitazenes.
Dr Shivaji said: 'Naloxone does work but we are hearing more and more of how it takes several shots to take effect, in some cases up to ten to get an overdose victim to come round.'
The RADAR report gathers together results of hospital toxicology tests and the accounts of drug users to paint a picture of the changing drugs landscape in Scotland.
The quarterly report is published more than two months after the reporting period ends - and the current situation means news drugs may already be rife by the time the first warnings are issued.
The SNP has been accused of failing to address the drug death crisis as the latest report shows drug deaths rose by 15% between March and May this year.
An earlier report showed that suspected drug deaths rose by a third in the first three months of this year.
After drops in the last three years, many fear Scotland could be heading for even worse numbers than the 1,339 deaths of 2020.
We are currently the worst overdose nation in Europe by miles - more than three times as bad as Ireland, in second place.
Scotland's Drugs and Alcohol Policy Minister Maree Todd said: 'We are working hard to respond to the growing threat from polydrug use, including 'street benzos' and cocaine, and from highly dangerous synthetic opioids like nitazenes.
'These synthetic drugs can be hundreds of times more potent than heroin and can increase the risk of overdose, hospitalisation and death. Because of their strength I would urge people to carry extra life-saving naloxone kits.'
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