Scotland’s Drug Crisis Explained

[@MasterrFlamaster]

Funny to think that 'Trainspotting' which paints Scotland as a bleak, drug-infested place, came out in an era which pales in comparison to today's overdose statistics.

[@ImloyaltoScotlandonly]

Scotland counts drug deaths differently and england still has a very bad drugs problem

[@ImloyaltoScotlandonly]

The tainted drugs come up from England

[@Fredreegz]

@@ImloyaltoScotlandonly every problem is _always_ someone else’s fault, isn’t it? 🙄

[@ImloyaltoScotlandonly]

@@Fredreegz so debunk that the drugs come up from England go on or you to uneducated to reply

[@KingFinnch]

@@ImloyaltoScotlandonly of course they come from england, almost everything comes from england, they're not being shipped by the bloody bergen ferry are they?

[@robertgray323]

Loneliness , hopelessness , disenfranchised , abused .

[@larryc1616]

Melania?

[@raphaelcaldwell3831]

more like abandoned by the government again and again....

[@AnnRKey-nd9no]

aye, an scotland is a shite place to live.

[@myriri3687]

"Lots of drug deaths in their 30s-40s, clearly when the mines shut these people all started using drugs and have continued to do so all this time" The way you word it suggests its literally the same people

[@SaintGerbilUK]

Dont you know dying from drugs isnt terminal until you die again...

[@camdig4385]

Majority of minors in the 80's would never of touched drugs alcohol was their tipple. It's the children of that era that are dying now, these communities lack simple man meaningful jobs such as coal mining, the area I was brought up in suffered terribly through the minor strikes with thousands of people chasing the available jobs at the time. The mines should of been closed over thirty years or so or dare I say it not shut at all as coal was still being used well into the 00's with Polish and Russian imports.

[@albertreynolds9287]

Glasgow are Edinburgh don't have mines

[@larryc1616]

Like grampa like father like son...

[@camdig4385]

@albertreynolds9287 maybe not in the Cities themselves but the suburbs were full of mines, all the lothians and Fife had mines and alot of Lanarkshire too. If you loose an employer of tens of thousands of workers in a short space of time it's inevitable the country will go to shit.

[@DanielEdwards-]

If you did your research a bit more thoroughly you’d know that Scotlands fishing communities were raking in cash and spending bucketloads on drugs during the 80’s and early 90’s. Since the fishing industry has disappeared a lot of these people still spend vast amounts of money on their addictions decades later. Especially in towns like Banff, Fraserburgh and Peterhead.

[@ronan_the_barbarian]

Absolutely! Terribly lazy video. It could have been interesting if they looked into the fishing industry decline, the oil industry boom and bust, brain drain, unique Scottish relationship with alcohol, Scottish mentality with mental health and anti-depressant use. Instead they went for the closing of the coal mines FFS

[@thethrawnscotsman5260]

@@ronan_the_barbarian Exactly! The biggest problem in Scotland was shutting down the very effective asylums and throwing the patients into the public then easing drug use laws.

[@freddiepatterson1045]

Not a very deep or great video this time. I know each TLDR video is different and some topics are easier and more understood by the writing team, but this felt like a quire shockingly surface level video

[@debbiegilmour6171]

TLDR really living up to their name. Seriously, I find their Scotland related content to be universally bad.

[@andrew4363]

to never mention the difference in how scotland records drug deaths is just so so basic. I love tldr but this could do with a massive rework.

[@tomlxyz]

This one is heavy on statistics and comparisons but not much about explaining

[@Gr0nal]

I think if you compared Scotland's figures with individual northern English de-industrialised towns it might be similar. I think Scotland is more homogenous whereas England has a wider array of destitution so it skews the figures. Also, I'm starting to feel like all of the problems the UK is facing - almost every single one - is directly or indirectly caused by our growing wealth inequality. Everyone seems to dance around that.

[@inbb510]

The problem has a cultural element. South Korea and Japan are by no general measure "richer" than the UK but have far lower drug related crimes due to a cultural taboo against doing drugs.

[@Talisguy]

​@@inbb510 Japan has significantly lower income inequality and while illegal drug use is less of an issue, binge drinking is a real problem in Japan. Alcoholism is not typically recognised as a problem and there's a lot of social pressure to drink, and drink _hard._

[@inbb510]

@@Talisguy in Scotland figure is still WAY higher for alcoholism compared to Japan. In Japan it was 9.1 per 100,000, and in Scotland it was 22.1 per 100,000. The problem is largely cultural. Either a culture stigmatises drug use or it endorses drug use as a society. This is why policing drugs work in Japan and South Korea but it doesn't work in places like the UK or USA. As long as we have a culture that praises rebelling against government rules and doing dangerous things as "edgy" then we can pass whatever policies we want with drugs and the problems will still remain.

[@inbb510]

@@Talisguy the mistake is to think that "poverty causes drugs". Rather it is "drugs that cause poverty". Same with crime. It's not "poverty causes crime" but rather "crime causes poverty".

[@Gucci-banana]

Yeah japan has no drug crime but they do have alot of issues with human trafficking , stalkers and SA

[@tomdip2094]

Drug addiction has to be broken down by drug. Some are more addictive than others. It's possible that the high number of deaths in the 35-55 bracket os the result of only 1 or 2 drugs massively impacting death statistics, and the use of that drug may be concentrated in that age bracket. Having lived in Edinburgh for many years, you can hardly avoid encountering people that are high on aerosols, or god knows what stumbling mindlessly on the street, or harrassing you for 50p. I think another issue is the drug use amongst the homesless, which seems ubiquitous at this point. I feel like this video didn't scratch the surface of what's actually going on 😢

[@djmasterspanks3172]

It’s the usual TLDR shite they always, three obvious things followed by badly animated graphs

[@BewareTheLilyOfTheValley]

I mean, it IS called "TLDR", lol. Not exactly the source for getting a deep analysis on complicated subjects. Watching as an American, though, where we've had severe drug problems for years, I was interested in hearing more about this.

[@TimesFM4532]

Mean we a small island, ita not liken fentanal in the us. Homelessness isn't unique to Scotland and we not essentially more or less poor

[@literatureshorts9792]

Also very significant to mention the dangers of street valium which is very prevalent in Scotland

[@popatyourecords]

This carnage started in the 80s look at the drug deaths from that decade

[@SkintLivingUK]

Its Thatcher's Legacy - she was happy to let the drugs flow to keep people distracted from her slimy dealings

[@chamikk90]

when people don't have anything to be happy about drugs make them happy. it's not rocket science

[@indrinita]

Drugs don’t even make them happy, just less sad.

[@ljnv]

Something to do with the celtic attitude especially in Scotland. Most Scots I've met are nice people but are hardly organised and are quite dysfunctional. You can even see it in their descendants in Australia, nz and the southern East of USA Appalachia. They tend to be loyal and good people but they're stand offish and take pride in drinking and pushing socially acceptable behaviour

[@ANDR0iD]

Drugs make you happy for a few hours than much more unhappy in the rest.

[@DanielEdwards-]

Drugs are sometimes the only thing preventing a suicide.

[@ashemocha]

bro got the no pfp bots in the replies 😭😭

[@him_That_is_me]

Gonna guess its the same as drug problem as in every other country: despair

[@urlauburlaub2222]

no. accessability and addiction are bigger drivers, and low quality health care.

[@tomlxyz]

@@urlauburlaub2222 the question is about what causes addition, cant circle reason that with addiction. supply also goes to where there is demand

[@fateenshareef8716]

Ever declining economy, ever shrinking social net, and ever powerful synthetic drugs flooding the market.

[@daggerdan12]

The people who lost their jobs in the 80s for the mine closures, these sound more like the parents of the age cohort where drug deaths have been skyrocketing. Someone who's 54 now would have been born ~1970. They may have briefly worked in a mine, but it's likely more due to community factors. The trauma from losing these jobs isn't contained to one generation, it's an intergenerational trauma. Also it's worth noting other forms of deindustrialization that accelerated in the 80s. Along the Clyde for instance many shipyards and related industries shut their doors also. I'd also state, but this is just my opinion, that education isn't as valued in these communities. Why would it be, in the olden days every man got a job at the mine/yard/factory. There was meaning, but there was no aspiration to social mobility. Without the meaning, without any dreams or aspirations, what's left? There's a reason why intergenerational poverty is a bigger problem in people of non migrant backgrounds in the UK, despite many migrants being poor. Child poverty deals you a rough hand, even rougher you've never learned to dream big. The social contract held by many in Scotland up until the 1980s was torn up. Society was up-ended for many people and the wrong was never made right.

[@VanillaMacaron551]

You would write a better video script than these guys.

[@englishexile8643]

You do know that Scotland records drug deaths differently than the rest of the UK right?

[@VanillaMacaron551]

No! Well they needed to explain that at the outset.

[@lewismcdonald9691]

@@VanillaMacaron551 yeah Scotland includes prescription drug overdoses where as England doesn’t

[@john-hl5tq]

The Media in Scotland encouraged by a buraucracy who's prime directive seems to be to undermine our self-confidence. Take a perverse delight in Labeling Scotland or Scottish cities as the "***** Capital of Europe". Murder, Knife Crime, Alcholism, AIDS, Tooth Decay, Drug Death, Teen Pregnacy, Obesity, Lung Cancer, Poor Spelling, you name the bad thing and it will have had it's turn. A lifetime of living in this Hell Hole on the Arse-end of the Civilised World. Makes me suspect that a death cerificate in the rest of the world, records the cause of death i.e. Heart Failure, Drowning, Struck by Lightning etc. and mentions a relavant contributaty factor if applicable - Whereas In Scotland if a pretext hovever tenuous can be found for listing Alcohol, Drugs or Smoking. It will be, and typed in BOLD and triple underlined. It would be pertainent to compare the guidlines that are given to doctors and forensic pathologists in all the various countries, because unless we do, drug death comparisons are meaningless.

[@thataguy555]

If you were a miner in the 70s-80s you would be 55+ today. The argument only works if the drug problems they developed passed down generationally to the 35-54 but also didn't affect them in their old age of 55+.

[@joedh23]

It's more about the aftermath of the miners etc. A youth growing up in a community that doesn't really serve a purpose anymore and has nothing to do is likely to suffer from deprivation and thus increased drug use at a young age which may persist to adulthood.

[@picklesmckenzie6094]

@@joedh23 everyone in the comments is very confused about how families work

[@daggerdan12]

@@thataguy555 I think people who were older would be less likely to start taking drugs. The loss of meaning for a lot of these things is generational since most all men in coal/factory/shipyard towns worked there. That was your future, the whole culture was geared towards young men going there and in some ways it was part of the social contract of these places, the expectation that you wouldn't necessarily get to be socially mobile but in return your employment was essentially guaranteed.

[@shaneintheuk2026]

The problem with blaming deindustrialisation is that it happened 35-45 years ago. Meaning it should have hit the older 55+ generations hard too. The statistics you’ve shared states that is not the case.

[@picklesmckenzie6094]

the 55+ people have all since either died from cardiac stress or were intelligent enough to find professional jobs.

[@daggerdan12]

Agreed, deindustrialization isn't the whole story. I think the increased amount of drugs on the streets in the 80s plays a big part. Older people who lost their job I'm sure felt like meaning in life had been lost but they would've also been a bit more set in their ways, less likely to begin taking drugs. The people dying now were all adolescents at the time, they would've been a bit more likely to try these things.

[@shaneintheuk2026]

@@picklesmckenzie6094 change intelligent to educated and I might agree. Working people may not have an intellectual background but it doesn’t mean they are stupid. Have you ever watched a graduate try to do something practical? There’s a reason why there’s a joke about having to teach a graduate management employee how to use a broom.

[@debbiegilmour6171]

There is such a thing as intergenerational trauma and in many cases, the level of employment that the shipyards provided just hasn't been replicated due to a lack of investment.

[@XsweetstarliteX]

When there is no funding, no prospects, no growth, no social support…people are more vulnerable to addiction and their vices. WE KNOW THIS.

[@Baldilocks88]

My mums ex BF died to a valium laced with Fent. Its weird seeing it forst hand. Happens a lot. Real shame this is our culture.

[@Morzalius]

2:56 The second, red, annotation should be 2019 not 2011

[@Yeppo_]

Noticed that too!

[@mimikidssongsandstories7755]

Nerds

[@SeverityOne]

From the dreams on the barbed wire at Flanders and Bilston Glen From the Clydeside that rusts from the tears of its broken men From the realisation that all we've been left behind Is to stand like our fathers before us in the firing line

[@Anonymous_Lee19]

1:30 In 2000, most drug deaths occur under age 35. 20 years later, most drug deaths occur from age 35 to 54. Isn't that just the same group of people??? They just got older. 🤷‍♂

[@zacchaeus80101]

Based on the information given, I'm skeptical about both of the 2 reasons offered. The graph for children taken into care is from 2015. This can't explain the increase in drug deaths among 35 - 54 year-olds, which we're also shown is driving the overall increase. The explanation about the breakup of mining communities possibly makes more sense. Some commentators here have pointed out that miners laid off between the 70s and 90s will now all be over 55, but it seems plausible that their kids would have been more likely to take drugs, given the breakdown of communities and many people in those communities who would have expected to go into mining not having had that option. In that case, though, I would have expected to see a spike in under-35 deaths in the early part of this century, which the graph doesn't show. More analysis needed, I'm afraid.

[@niamhturner1451]

yeah, a bigger factor wasn't mentioned here, the fact that the massive spike in drug deaths started when alcohol prices went right up due to the minimum price unit, which drove people who were previously alcoholics to drugs. The children in care point was clearly a symptom of societal and safety issues in Scotland and not a clear point of why we have so many people dying from drugs now. however being that the steelworks and coal mining were the backbone of the Scottish economy when they were still around, and where a good chunk of our (mostly) men actually employed in and we still haven't really recovered from their closures

[@zacchaeus80101]

​@@niamhturner1451 Interesting. I've always had deep misgivings about the minimum alcohol pricing policy and certainly it looks a plausible explanation from the chart in the video (although the 35-55 did seem to be trending up a bit before 2012). Are you aware of any other research on this link?

[@julianburton9409]

3:31 the word you're looking for is "deprivation", as in how deprived (with an I) an area is. "Depravation", which would be a measure of how depraved (with an A) an area is, is a very different metric, typically highest in the area immediately surrounding the House of Lords.

[@Alex-pr6zv]

Im my hometown, I knew people in their 20s who were taking truckloads of ecstacy in the 1990s (up to 8 pills a night). Some have passed since then , others are still alive, approaching 50, and still using. To that you can add the usual mix of chain-smoking, alcohol, poor nutrition etc. When the gorbals was demolished, a lot of families were resettled to new towns, and from these dysfunctional families came many druggies who were a bad influence.

[@TheUndulyNoted]

Why are you referring to ecstasy pills as “using” mdma (the drug in those pills) is not chemically addictive. That means it does not form that mental craving people get for nicotine, heroine, cocaine, alcohol and some others. It’s not possible to form a dependency on mdma, it’s just fun to do it. You should really go and educate yourself.

[@Alex-pr6zv]

@@TheUndulyNoted You we`re doing OK until you had to add the insult.

[@Purjo92]

@@TheUndulyNoted MDMA is amphetamine derivate. Sure, it mostly increases your levels of serotonin, unlike regular amphetamine or meth which are more potent dopamine releasers. However, it can still be addictive like many other drugs because it is moderately effective as a dopamine releaser. Some people have ruined their lives with unhealthy levels of MDMA use and we have to remember that MDMA is really bad for your serotonin balance, since it has some neurotoxic effects on serotonin cells in your brain. That might cause problems like memory loss, anxiety, and depression, which can make your life less enjoyable.

[@CS_____]

@@TheUndulyNoted not all addictions require a chemical dependence: drug use can become habitual regardless of a drug's specific chemical nature

[@richardhands904]

Really confidently wrong, you can be dependent without it being physically addictive.​@@TheUndulyNoted

[@nintendokings]

A culture of drugs acceptance. Depressing weather. Lack of opportunities.

[@simonhopkins3867]

I just googled ( how are drug related deaths calculated in england and scotland) My head is going to explode.

[@somecuriosities]

Do tell for all the girls and boys stumbling upon what you're saying in the comments section.

[@lewismcdonald9691]

In Scotland we count prescription overdoses as drug deaths England don’t

[@New-ye2fl]

England doesn’t count prescriptions drug deaths, Scotland does

[@somecuriosities]

@@New-ye2fl Potentially big difference there!

[@Irisishunter]

This is something that genuinely interests me, video says that the coal mine closures hit Scotland harder than the rest of the UK but it does not say why, I would love to know

[@SaintGerbilUK]

Or why they are still the major reason for anything 40 years after it happened? Everywhere else has recovered and done something else instead by now.

[@tiborsipos1174]

It mentions. Scotland relied way more on coal mining than rest of UK. Like the purpose of a town was to mine coal. This is a downscaled dutch-disease: when a region relies too much on a natural resource. The area thrives until the resource is depleted and when the goverment/population doesn't transition to anything else the job loss creates a ripple effect: no resource -> no job -> no money -> depravity -> no purpose -> etc... Yeah... people still live there, but local shops and services arent enough to soak up the high unemployment and with ASB and crime on the rise it depletes more resources on emergency services which again becomes a financial deficit since locals cant contribute much to the treasury and by that (I assume) its hard to justify to relocate more workers into the area... At this point I am not sure why people are soo passive too. Instead learning or finding a different purpose they specialize to become a victim, blaming the world for their own misery and take drugs and alcohol instead of doing anything else...

[@SaintGerbilUK]

@@tiborsipos1174 well that's it over 40 years is now multiple generations of dependency.

[@vannustube]

@@SaintGerbilUK taking & selling drugs replaced having a proper job, for multiple generations. good to see that has eased off for todays under 35s. suggests things got better for those born in the 80s/90s.

[@possumpoppy]

A huge number of children being removed from their parents' care was due to parental drug and alcohol misuse and the resultant neglect. So it is not at all clear that being in care causes drug misuse. Many of these children had been exposed to addiction prior to being in care. There are other inaccuracies in this report but i cannot be bothered to address them all. Except to say that i grew up in a big Scottish town which had no mining. What it did have was heavy engineering, a car factory, ship building, 2 cotton mills and a huge carpet factory. They were all gone by the 80s. I renember the car the car factory announced it was closing. I held my 4 day old baby son and wept. It was one of the last major employers to go and i worried for his future. All these industries were not replaced and the town is a mess. Your argument is oversimplistic.

[@polreamonn]

Living in Scotland will do that to someone.

[@SaintGerbilUK]

I'm in a bad place, not mentally, I'm just living in Scotland.

[@ImloyaltoScotlandonly]

@@SaintGerbilUK go pay for your prescriptions and water soon there if you think it's better 🤣🤣 don't drink the water it's got sewage in it

[@ImloyaltoScotlandonly]

@@SaintGerbilUK ohhh Karen another of my comments reported by you snowflake

[@inbb510]

​@@ImloyaltoScotlandonly, paying for prescriptions is normal in much of mainland Europe. Scotland and Wales are mostly exceptions to the rule rather the rule itself. And a rule that must eventually be reformed to make the NHS fit for an aging population.

[@prestonr6348]

*Grabs popcorn 🍿 Anglo-Scottish wars flashback

[@TheBarbaracska]

It's not a problem in central eastern Europe. Only alcohol is. A problem around here.

[@scotthenry3401]

The Shetland Islands , north of Scotland has a higher number of drug users/addicts per capita than the rest of scotland!

[@thethrawnscotsman5260]

No mention that drugs are effectively legal to use in Scotland. I've seen drug users ushered past people in the chemists to a wee room for their hit and I live in wee town! Dundee is a hotspot for people coming from England because it is so soft here and easy to get drugs. Shutting down asylums and throwing the patients into the public domain was another hug problem.

[@SkintLivingUK]

Thatcher's Legacy is alive and well across the country - she was happy to let the drugs flow in the 1980s.

[@crocodileguy4319]

ah yes, every single British L is because one politician in power in the 80's

[@DaDARKPass]

Ah obviously - Thather is to blame for every problem you have. What a convenient way to move blame away from the real culprits. Obviously it isn't a failure to encourage growth in industry or lack or policing or anything else. No, it has to be that one woman who told you that unions can't just destroy the country for a 10% payrise that would mean nothing anyway due to inflation.

[@SaintGerbilUK]

I think you'll find that Scotland was under Labours control from 1955 - 2010 preceded by the Unionists and succeeded by the SNP.

[@dairallan]

@@DaDARKPass Thatcher is literally responsible for almost every problem in modern Britain. Drugs, yes it was her failure and the zero tolerance "just say no" approach. Housing, yes she sold it all off and never rebuilt Social Housing. Poverty, yes she started the "managed decline" thats been ongoing in every part of the UK outwith London for decades. You can go through every single issue and its going to be "because Thatcher". Thats just reality. Managed Decline is an interesting one because its the direct counter you try to raise in blaming "failure to encourage growth in industry or lack of policing or anything else". Managed Decline literally means you dont replace industry, you manage the decline by bringing in foreign short term investment, the 10 year factories that provide some jobs during the biggest slash and burn then vanish. Managed DEcline also means you dont bother policing properly, you dont ever bother with the causes of crime, you just make sure it doesnt come over the "border" to wealthier areas. Its ironic that in your deperate attempt to excuse Thatcher you highlight just the ways her deliberate destruction impacted society. The only thing you cant blame her for was the destruction of pensions and companies being allowed (indeed incentivised) to move away from decent Final Salary pension schemes to worthless Money Purchase saving schemes which was 100% Gordon Brown and New Labour. Thats going to devastate the UK over the coming 15 years which should terrify everyone when you consider the extant state of the economy moving into this disaster. So that ones on New Labour and not Thatcher. But then Thatcher did love to claim that New Labour were her greatest legacy...

[@captainnice1881]

SkintLivingUK, you must be an overdosed northerner

[@daviddevoy5966]

No mention of the impact of the crackdown on excess alcohol consumption through Minimum Unit Pricing. Making alcohol consumption less attractive and drug consumption more so.

[@Chareboe]

Such an important video and topic. The issues in Scotland remind me a lot of what is happening in West Virginia with the decline in coal mining combined with the rise in drug usage. These people matter too and I’m grateful for the awareness raised here.

[@MarkPTP7000]

Can't believe I just saw a Final Fantasy XIII advert in a TLDR video

[@dftfire]

Why? Adverts go by your interests and data Google has on you, and are not set by the channels themselves. So if you like that game series, hence you seeing the ad. Nothing to do with TLDR...

[@yougoslavia]

@@dftfire If Google has so much of my data, why do they never give me any relevant adverts?

[@dftfire]

​@@yougoslaviaYou might have disabled targeting or ad topic preferences, or live in an EU country where that isn't allowed? But either way my point stands: the OP did not see a FF13 ad because TLDR have chosen to run that... it's based on their own interests

[@Acaeris]

@@dftfire You missed that the advert they were talking about is on the side of a bus in the actual TLDR video ;)

[@dftfire]

​​@@AcaerisOh, right, the one that briefly appears for less-than a second at 1:15. I guess I must have missed that as I was, you know... focusing on what this video is actually about! 😂🤷🏻‍♂️

[@jontalbot1]

I don’t see how you can discuss illegal drugs without including legal ones- notably alcohol. Nor do l think you can avoid talking about culture. Scotland has long had a culture which celebrates and encourages intoxication. Deindustrialisation has made things worse for sure but the predisposition has long existed

[@fighterguard]

I strongly suspected that PM Starmer had absolutely nothing to do with that crisis. And after watching the video, I confirmed that he wasn't even mentioned. So why put his picture in the thumbnail, next to the ominous upward trend chart? Of course, as Prime Minister, it is up to him to do something about it. But this thumbnail makes it look like it's his fault somehow.

[@debbiegilmour6171]

That's FM John Swinney. Not Herr Starver. However, your point still stands. The Scottish government has no influence over drug policy all of which is reserved to Westminster.

[@fighterguard]

@@debbiegilmour6171 I suspected the thumbnail would be changed at some point. I've seen it happen all the time. I expected the removal of the guy who's not at fault. What I did not expect was for him to be replaced by another guy who's even less at fault.

[@BennBeaton]

If only drug policy was fully devolved. The 50/50 control of policy helps nobody.

[@JosTheMan1]

How the people who lost their jobs in 70/80s would now be in major role in the 35-54 age bracket? They would have had to have job from day 1 for that to align, or even before they were born. Its also amazing that they would have kept their drug abuse under control for decades before ever decided to move into heavier shit

[@SaintGerbilUK]

Exactly the problems of today, being caused by something 40-ish years ago seems suspect.

[@EckCop]

@@SaintGerbilUK In many places, when the mines closed or factories shut, there was little to replace it. So people grew up with no hope, having unemployed, often depressed and angry parents. It still echos till today. Patterns once set, require effort to break. A bit more industry in Scotland would help. For pride, a sense of purpose and brute economics.

[@SaintGerbilUK]

@@EckCop But this is exactly the problem, "The government shut down my job, I guess I'll wait for another government job to be given to me" No, start your own company hire people, when no one is working everyone wants a job. Literally everywhere else figured this out.

[@picklesmckenzie6094]

@@SaintGerbilUK When a whole culture is designed around having communities that bring in money from the coal mine s and steel works everything is setup for that to succeed. from the local bakers to the transport. Once that has been ripped out of the coummnity in such a fast pace way which was done in the 80s it becomes extremely hard to adapt to the new life around you. Your husband become stressed maybe has a heart attack and now theres a single mum raising 2 children or maybe the children grow up in a household where theres no money coming in at a steady pace . The reasons are endless as to why the pressures continue from one generation to the next. The next part about starting a business is that nobody now has money to buy from you and banks arent lending to communties that have nothing.

[@SaintGerbilUK]

@@picklesmckenzie6094 How would this have not happened when the vein was exhausted? The solution is that they need a large company to come in and create jobs, and if not an external large company make one yourselves.

[@Ibnsallah]

Stop complaining. We are just white and should be grateful for the great cultural enrichment and the diversification of the drug market. I pray that the cultural enrichment increases evermore.

[@Makalon102]

its ridiculous cannabis is still illegal

[@jos9116]

I live in Scotland and am not originally from here. I’ve lived here for 10 years since I was 24. I’ve lived in three places: Kingussie, Inverness, Edinburgh (Leith). You see a lot of very things happening while people are on drugs, but I think you get that everywhere? This statistic makes me very sad. But could it be a reporting thing? I have no idea why it would be unduly high. Scotland is a beautiful country to live in, and I feel like we all look after each other.

[@xtieburn]

If you compare anything to England you are almost always going to get skewed results if you include London where all the money and a good portion of the population has concentrated. So how does this all stack up to a more like to like comparison? Like Scotland vs the North of England?

[@silliestsususagest3276]

So reading the report for "Drug Deaths in Scotland 2022" (bit dated I know!) but says 27.1, then for the North east is 16, rest of the North(Yorkshire, North west) and Wales and NI seem to be around 11! and then South excluding London is around 8. The avg for the UK is 10 in the report. So still a pretty marked difference!

[@Chem0_oPoet]

1:51 Hypothesis: In 2000 the majority of drug related deaths occured in the age bracket of

[@randerson5172]

That is the hypothesis expressed in the video.

[@Chem0_oPoet]

@@randerson5172 In my opinion, the possibility that the high mortality drug abuse observed in the data from the 2000's and 2020's may be related to the same generation of people, is not discussed clearly. If it IS discussed, I think it is overshadowed by the rest of the information in the video - in which case the focus and structure of the script's argument may benefit from minor restructuring.

[@gogs8166]

Hang on there are some odd statistics here. In the 1960s the UK lost roughly 350,000 mining jobs. In the 1980s it lost a bit less than 200,000. The 60s are the big mining job losses. Scotland lost 14,000 mining jobs after 1984. Big but not huge numbers. There is an argument to be had about other heavy industries such as ship building The drug taking age argument also seems a bit off. If you were 12 in 1989, you would be 47 now or 43 in 2020. This is the most extreme case you can get to. If you were 20 in 1984, you would be 60 now. This does not match up with the graphs of drugs misuse deaths by age. If it was down to effects from the 80s you would expect to see deaths in the oldest group increasing. If anything the most likely time for the cohort currently dying to have taken it up would have been the mid to late 90s. Unemployment is highest in the early 1980s and then steadily falls until a spike in 2008, although it remains hidden but high in more deprived areas. The case presented is poorly supported by the data presented

[@iaintaylor7705]

It’s important to understand what causes the early deaths in Scotland. They are caused by drug misuse, suicide and trauma. They are NOT caused by alcohol, obesity and smoking. The sad and simple fact is that deprivation and stress in childhood affects brain development in two ways. Firstly the emotional balance is impaired and secondly the ability to assess situational risk is reduced. These changes lead to early deaths from suicide and trauma. The prevalence of drug misuse, alcohol abuse and broken families are the source of childhood stress and trauma. Put simply, the way forward is to improve the lives of children in Scotland thereby allowing normal brain development. These are social and welfare issues which need to be addressed by our government. The work you should look at was done by Professor Harry Burns of Caledonian University, Glasgow, Scotland.

[@szaszm_]

But which drugs? They're VERY different.

[@TheHellishOtherWriter]

"Aye, Jessie, let the lad cook."

[@scottyc6341]

Also worth mentioning free prescriptions started in Scotland around 2011 and minimum unit alcohol pricing started in 2012. This has led to more people on recurring prescriptions and also people turning away from alcohol and opting for cheaper drugs to misuse.

[@debbiegilmour6171]

Wow! Somebody actually trying to use free prescriptions as an explanation for drug death issues.

[@Greeno999]

Where are the drugs coming from?

[@Peds013]

Im surprised that the towns in Scotland were more reliant on mining than the ones in Wales. They lives and breathed the mines too, but seemingly have lesser issues.

[@CarlosKTCosta]

Legalize drugs, put taxes on them, make the cheap so that they become a bad business. 1 - Legal drugs supplied by proper channels makes it safer leading to less ODs; 2 - Taxing drugs gets some extra money for health system; 3 - Legal drug distribution gives you easy access to drug users that can be used to broaden drug treatment; 4 - Making drug business unprofitable deflates criminal organizations.

[@gabrielcastor5084]

A total of zero people are chocked to discover that it is Thatcher's fault. Another one for her legacy!

[@theskv21]

3:36 jesus Depravity typically refers to either a very evil quality or way of behaving, as in "a life of utter depravity," or to an evil or immoral act, as in "the depravities of war." Deprivation typically refers to the state of not having something that is needed-that is, the state of being deprived of something.

[@KnightRaymund]

Anybody who worked in a mine would be older than your target group. Or dead because, you know, deadly coal mines.

[@thomasedwards9450]

The one problem with the theory about the mines is that it hit wales even harder and as shown they have a lower rate than Scotland

[@livpeake8108]

A very important video - this is one of the reasons why I want to study medical humanities so that we can connect the dots between deprivation, ACEs and healthcare!

[@grantmcarthur2669]

Minimum alcohol pricing a big factor, too expensive for a lot of people to go out and buy drink anymore so they’d rather spend a fraction of the price for a bag of gear and sit in an empty with their mates

[@beedaroeh4334]

Seems more of an generation issue. In 2000's it were the -35's, in the 2020's it's the 35-54 year old's... thats the same generation

[@ronansmith8381]

Growing up in Scotland in a town stripped bare by lack of council funding and outside investment into recreational facilities most young people started drinking or smoking weed, this led to people trying out more and more things to pass the time and make life interesting. Many of those I grew up with got very addicted

[@FishareFriendsNotFood972]

Trainspotting was ahead of the curve

[@cyrilio]

Drug policy is horrible and the blanket ban made it only worse. Politicians are. It listening to actual drug prevention experts. Regulate drug sales, provide good harm reduction, provide good mental health treatment, etc. All that spending on police is a waste of money. Use that to treat those with mental health issue, poverty, housing, etc. You’ll even have a ton of money left to spend on things like infrastructure, education etc.

[@aktuellyattee8265]

Can't beat the national tradition.

[@Lando-kx6so]

Another tory legacy

[@iactr3807]

Take some personal responsibly for your addictions please. Cold mines 😂 🙄 I mean please snap out of it. The cuts to treatment services & rehabs are the main issues here plus why older addicts are dying because they aren’t being offered treatments anymore they’ve burned through too many rehabs already. The massive poverty issue doesn’t help either.

[@CallumCollie]

3:31 deprivation is spelt incorrectly

[@cypheruz9036]

Simple what is there to do in Scotland?

[@laurynasjagelo5075]

mountaineering. But that's about it.

[@jordanwood2332]

British weather

[@stuartgoosemacculloch5571]

Yeah the dark nights & short days the damp cold climate for 6 months of the year could be a cause too. SAD and people resort to drugs to cure there problems end up going overboard. resulting in deaths and overdoses.

[@cainneachdaugherty7172]

@@stuartgoosemacculloch5571 Meanwhile in Greenland suicide rates spike during the summer.

[@georgesb3388]

It should also be mentioned that we tax alcohol very highly and place heavy restrictions on when people can even buy alcohol. It's actually a lot cheaper and more convenient for people who may have been alcoholics to turn to drugs to get their fix. As a single guy in his mid-20s living in a council house in Central Scotland I've probably got a bit more insight into this issue than a lot of people. Valium is a particular problem, along with ketamine. Both offer more "bang for your buck" than spending money on alcohol. I think that if you were to compare drug stats to alcohol stats in other countries then you'd find a closer correlation since people are moving away from alcohol and towards drugs because of the heavy government restrictions.

[@anfieldreds_1892]

wow. this is the first in a long time, i’ve seen a social problem in the UK and the comments are not blaming it on immigrants

[@Solotraveler1422]

I live in Edinburgh and yes that is real... I guess such difficult weather plays a big part of above problem, life here and Glasgow is getting very expensive too we are comparable to some southern big english cities rent and prices wise.

[@ImloyaltoScotlandonly]

@@Solotraveler1422 Scotland records drug deaths differently to England the English establishment cover up their drug deaths doing it a different way

[@Solotraveler1422]

@@ImloyaltoScotlandonly they try to hide their problems while Scotland doesn't.

[@inbb510]

​@@ImloyaltoScotlandonly, may I see sources for this? Surely then this would apply to other countries across Europe too?

[@silliestsususagest3276]

@@inbb510 the I'm loyaltoScotland guy seems to be replying to every comment with how Bad England is compared to Scotland or all of it is England's fault. I don't think you'll get a source out of him!

[@silliestsususagest3276]

@@inbb510 So reading the report for "Drug Releated Deaths in Scotland 2022" (bit dated I know!) but says 27.1, then for the North east is 16, rest of the North(Yorkshire, North west) and Wales and NI seem to be around 11! and then South excluding London is around 8. The avg for the UK is 10 in the report. So still a pretty marked difference! I you wanted a comparison

[@jordanabernathey7787]

4:00 thatcher - the one word term you’re looking for instead of deindustrialisation

[@New-ye2fl]

I find it weird how we’re only allowed to compare home nations when it comes to making Scotland look bad, look at the knife crime in England atm some of the worst stats in the western world, remember when Scotland was knife capital of the Europe? I do, never once did I hear it being called uk knife crime, when it’s England it’s always UK then. You find that once you leave the uk, you will struggle to find a bad word said about Scot’s but as soon as you hit British shores we’re all jobless junkies

[@dougbound-jb2pv]

tbf you do have a lot of junkies

[@ErmisSouldatos]

I saw the word drug at the title and because the guy in the thumbnail is bald is just the right way, for a moment I thought he was Walter White

[@dftfire]

John Swinney For some people, the thumbnail of this video features Kier Starmer instead!

[@lorny4u]

Drug laws are reserved to Westminster!!! These figures are IN UNION!!!!!

[@djpandsmm]

I would love to see a comparison of the definition of what is a drug related death. I believe that what would be deemed a drug related death in Scotland may not be what is deemed a drug related death elsewhere n the UK.

[@dftfire]

Yes, would be helpful. In the EU, a "drug-induced death" is centrally defined. I wonder if the pro-EU SNP administration go by that definition, or have created their own? 🤔

[@djpandsmm]

@@dftfire The ONS states that the figures on Drug Related Deaths (whatever that actually means) cannot be compared with other countries due to the discrepancies in measuring and collecting data. From personal knowledge I know that what Scotland would record as a DRD, would not be recorded as such in England and Wales. There is also significant difference in what is recorded, with Scotland and NI giving more detailed responses to exactly what drugs are involved in the death.

[@djpandsmm]

@@dftfire Just reading you comment again, what you mentioned is that in the EU it’s related to a drug induced death, interesting. So that would indicate that a significant causative factor would be a direct link to the “Drug” . I assume that they would define exactly what drugs that would relate to. I have known DRD to be classified as such where the individual had taken cannabis but died of unrelated medical cause, however the presence of cannabis in their system made the death part of the DRD statistics.

[@djpandsmm]

@@dftfire And the definition is not down to any one party, like lots of these things in Scotland ( and elsewhere in the UK) it’s came from cross party committees with the assistance and input from experts from across the various specialist fields.

[@dftfire]

@@djpandsmm Sure, but my point on the definition is: if Scotland looks worse than England for "drug-deaths", because of how they define what will be classed as a death caused by drug-use, maybe they could just change the definition? No-one is forcing them to use the one they are?

[@davidwatson7604]

Feel it's a bit of a wasted opportunity, not putting info for help but running an ad at the end. Really think it could have done better.

[@inbb510]

@@davidwatson7604 it's not their job to give medical info that they aren't qualified to give.

[@dftfire]

​@@inbb510No, but there's nothing stopping them from suggesting a third-party service someone could contact. You know, like the "if you've been affected by any of the issues in this programme ..." you see on TV? 🤔

[@tiborsipos1174]

Not sure why is this so hard to imagine: Deprived parents who used drug was seen by kids. Kids thought its cool to do what parents do, maybe encouraged by "parents" Those drug addict kids grew up, reached the mentioned age bracket and die from overdose. The deprivation quintile: Depravation metric is a bit odd statistical data because its a self confirming feedback loop. At one part whoever grows up in a deprived area will have less respect towards their own neighbourhood. Messy area with ASB -> "I am just like anyone else here" attitude. However anyone who tries to brake out from that area will educate themselves, get a job and as soon its possible they move away -> hence could be a possible explanation why Q1 and Q2 gap increased that much.

[@jaykenny4205]

Interview the Trainspotting Director. He will give you a good answer.

[@auldfouter8661]

Man if they started using drugs in the 1970s and 1980s they have to be over 60 now and not in that 34-55 age band with the high drug deaths.

[@Zethonring23]

It's amazing how many problems in this country still can be traced back to Thatcher

[@kireaea]

Thatcher 🤝 Reagan ruining the system for everyone except upper-middle class and one-percenters

[@dariusftw3378]

1:40 that graph for U35s only looks stable because of the scaling lol...

[@filmrevenge]

Fom what I understand from anecdotal stories from BBC Scotland coverage, is deaths are also increasing because the drugs are stronger, and also users are mixing drugs. Everything seems to have fentanyl in it now as well. So I wonder if there's not enough empirical data or it would have made the video too long. Good info video btw

[@alphamikeomega5728]

How about a comparison to the formerly coal-producing areas of England and Wales?

[@darthboren]

So, Scotland is Appalachia. Scotland is West Virginia.

[@thematthew761]

Many Appalachians are of Scottish descent

[@hehesecret552]

We’re not poor nor conservatives tho

[@tejashdasgupta1840]

@@hehesecret552 consevrative? arguably. poor? definitely. scotland has a gdp per capita much lower than Mississippi

[@jess8189]

This sounds a lot like West Virginia and the US forming mining communities. It’s very sad here too.

[@MastererClark]

If we knew how many active or former drug addicts per 1000 people there were in each nation it might help us understand the current situation.

[@louiscypher4186]

So basically the youth from the 80's - 90's who said drugs are cool and if you don't do them your a nerd are now middle aged drug addicts?

[@James-oo1yq]

The working class jobs such as the mines and the fishing industry are decimated. Computer knowledge is pretty much essential for most jobs, and sitting at a desk isn’t really what the working class do best. Another aspect (I believe) is by the time the drugs such as Heroin and Cocaine reach Edinburgh and Glasgow, they have been cut multiple times. I used to travel to Liverpool and Newcastle to buy larger amounts, but even that stuff had been cut by the time it reached those cities. If you can avoid drugs then do, but if you must….NEVER do opiates. They destroy and kill

[@alastairzotos]

A good three-quarters of those deaths are male, despite similar levels of adverse childhood experiences. The explanation I find most persuasive is that boys don't have attentive father figures, or their fathers are generally not present due to work, and generally there aren't enough older males in their community to help them transition into adulthood. Boys find it harder than girls to make that transition and if they don't manage they're more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol

[@williamsjm100]

Coal, is not the explanation nor children taken into care. The main explanation for the excess deaths relative to England is a lot of imported drug deaths in Scotland. Those in the older age category choose to move to Scotland from many areas of the U.K. and indeed across Europe for a number of reasons, mostly access to drugs and better treatment etc. Check the birth certificates for the dead 40+ year olds. Instead of dying in England they move to Scotland and then die as the drug consumption takes its toll on their health.

[@dactax37]

Deprivation is written as depravation in a cartel lol

[@end8316]

ALSO, BECAUSE IT’S A MISERABLE PLACE TO LIVE. Poverty is real in Scotland as well as The UK and we don’t realise how shit, poor and deprived we are. Have a look around, even your closest roundabout looks awful and unmaintained. I live in North Wales, which is a deprived place in the UK. It performs the worst economically in all of Northern Europe and by EU standards is third world country. THE DRUG ABUSE HERE IS INSANELY HIGH.

[@markwatson548]

So we do drug numbers differently in Scotland we have all drugs as drug deaths not just illegal ones look at the actual numbers not at the head line's

[@n4d13LOLZ]

I absolutely love that typo where you've claimed that Scotland's levels of depravation are comparable to the rest of the UK. 😂

[@Crack_biscuits]

The only thing we're in 1st place for 😂😂

[@oorrossie]

Feel like it's very strange to focus so heavily on pit closures for Scotland. IRL drug deaths are highest in and around Glasgow and Dundee - where pit employment was comparitively low. The picture in and around Glasgow is the closure of factories and shipyards - which were massive workplaces with strong worker communities that produced goods people could be proud of. In Dundee it was the closure of factories and fisheries. Now many people are either unemployed or work in call centres/ retail/ fast food - all of which tend to have much weaker communities. Combined with the rise in the cost of living, and poorly funded addiction services, it's a cocktail for people to start and fall between the cracks.

[@TheGhostOf2020]

Pretty much a direct correlation with the causes and effects seen in the US ‘Rust Belt’ and other similar regions. It’s going to be a tough road ahead…

[@SuperMrScience]

The people dying from the overdoses ages 35-54 were BORN during the coal mining shutdowns, or at most were children. They were affected of course as their parents were, but they themsleves were not involved in this industry and so them using drugs to manage their grief / pain doesnt really make sense.

[@Finnbobjimbob]

So many bots

[@ImloyaltoScotlandonly]

Ok bot

[@andrewcomerford9411]

Everybody blames the Scottish Government - completely ignoring that Drugs Policy is reserved, and that funding/initiatives can only come from Westminster.

[@gordonmackenzie4512]

Yes that is true. Scottish Government have their hands tied behind their back by Westminster. Every scheme and initiative is shot down.

[@niamhturner1451]

but a lot of the policies aren't strictly from the drug policy, the minimum price unit for alcohol is literally a bigger factor at the moment which is a scottish devolved issue,