Nitazenes implicated in 247 deaths as Scotland’s drug toll rises 11%

Drug-related deaths in Scotland increased by 11% last year, with powerful synthetic opioids known as nitazenes implicated in more than one in five fatalities.

Figures from National Records of Scotland show 1,133 drug-related deaths were registered in 2025, an increase of 116 from the previous year and the sixth-highest annual total on record.

Nitazenes were involved in 247 deaths, compared with 76 in 2024—an increase of more than 200%. The substances are produced in illegal laboratories and can be considerably stronger than traditional opioids. They may also be added to other drugs without the person taking them knowing they are present, making the strength and effects of the supply increasingly unpredictable.

Opiates and opioids, including heroin, remained the drug group most commonly implicated and were present in 78% of deaths. Fatalities among men rose by 19%, while the average age of people who died was 46.

The figures also reveal a stark connection between drug deaths and deprivation. People living in Scotland’s most deprived communities were 15 times more likely to die from drug use than those in the least deprived areas.

Kirsten Horsburgh, chief executive of the Scottish Drugs Forum, said the rise could not be attributed solely to contaminated drugs or individual drug use. She highlighted the wider influence of poverty, trauma, insecure housing, deprivation and inequalities in mental health support.

Scotland’s public health minister Maree Todd said the country faced an increasingly toxic and unpredictable supply and acknowledged that further action was required. The Scottish Government funded more than 1,100 residential rehabilitation placements during the year and has widened access to treatment.

Drug-checking services are also being developed, allowing people to submit substances for testing and receive harm-reduction advice. A service is expected to operate from Glasgow’s safer drug consumption facility, with further services approved for Aberdeen and Dundee and another planned in Edinburgh.

However, the latest increase shows the scale of the challenge facing treatment providers, emergency services and communities. The rapid growth of nitazenes means established approaches to Scotland’s drug crisis must now respond to a supply capable of changing faster—and becoming more dangerous—than many users realise.

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