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Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has written to the Minister for Drugs and Alcohol Policy Elena Whitham to ask what action is being taken to prevent spiking deaths from synthetic opioids are between twenty and fifty times stronger than heroin, as he raised expert concerns that drugs such as fentanyl and captagon are expected to fill a global shortage of heroin. Mr Cole-Hamilton’s letter is as follows: Dear Elena, I am writing to you to express my deep concern about the rise in the prevalence and use of synthetic opioids. On the 3rd of November, at the Cross-committee meeting on Drug Deaths and Drug Harm, I raised the threat posed by synthetic opioids, and the potential for an increase in their use across Scotland. As you will know, following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan there has been a fall in the availability of heroin, with some experts predicting that there may be only 18 months’ worth of heroin left in the illicit global supply chain. There are now serious concerns that this could result in an uptick in the prevalence of dangerous synthetic opioids like fentanyl and captagon, amongst others. Synthetic opioids are between twenty and fifty times stronger than heroin and a hundred times stronger than morphine. To put the scale of the threat posed by these substances into perspective, in the United States in 2012, just over 2,500 people died as a result of using synthetic opioids (predominantly fentanyl). By 2022 that number had jumped to 73,500. There is an epidemic of synthetic opioid misuse in the US that has not yet been realised on our shores, but that may be changing. We know that heroin mixed with fentanyl is already being circulated in Scotland. Based on police seizures, we are already seeing an increase in the prevalence of nitazenes, a synthetic opioid similar to fentanyl. Nitazenes are often convincingly disguised as other substances, so users are unaware they are taking it. In the last six months alone, it’s use has been linked to the tragic deaths of 54 people in the UK, including 9 people in Scotland. In order to prevent the tragic loss of yet more lives, it is clear that we need to prepare now for an increase in the supply and use of these substances in Scotland. I am therefore writing to ask: (a) what work is the government doing to prepare for a dramatic increase in the prevalence of synthetic opioids in Scotland; (b) what is being put in place to detect these substances, particularly where they are being disguised; (c) what learning has the government taken from the crisis in the United States as regards the behaviour of users and the most effective interventions to save lives; (d) how the government is working alongside drugs charities and public bodies, for example Public Health Scotland, to develop an integrated and collaborative response to this threat? Yours Sincerely, Alex Cole-Hamilton Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats |
