A month after Scotland recorded its highest annual number of drug deaths in 20 years, the First Minister is to lead discussions at a taskforce set up to turn the tide on a national tragedy.

A total of 1,264 deaths linked to drugs took place in 2018-19 – 6% more than the year before and the highest rate in Europe.

Set up by the Scottish government to develop longer-term interventions to bring deaths down, the Drug Deaths Taskforce meets today with the First Minister leading on discussions about what more the government can do to deliver “a greater pace of change”.

In recent weeks the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh called for drug consumption rooms to be set up in Scotland as part of the immediate response to the crisis.

Last week, in line with calls from campaigners for addiction support services, the government announced more take-home opiate antidote kits – called Naloxone and designed to be administered when someone has overdosed – would be handed out to at-risk individuals by ambulance crews.

Following outcry over the rising death rate, then Minister for Public Health Joe FitzPatrick was dismissed by the First Minister.

The responsibility for tackling Scotland’s drug deaths was assigned to a new dedicated Minister for Drugs Policy, Angela Constance, who reports directly to the First Minister on progress.

Meanwhile former Rural Affairs Minister Mairi Gougeon became the new Public Health Minister.

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