.@MegJ4289 spoke with @AndrewMarr9 on @LBC abt rise in synthetic drugs across UK Very concerning for 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 with some of the highest drug deaths in the world already Suspected deaths for Jan-Sep 2023 indicate 13% rise from Jan-Sep 2022 @PaulJSweeney @agcolehamilton Glasgow & Edinburgh are some of the worst impacted with suspected deaths in Glasgow at 231 and Edinburgh at 99, Lanarkshire was also badly impacted with 108 suspected deaths in the area. While those of us that have campaigned for overdose prevention sites welcome the opening of one in Glasgow we all know that this alone is not enough and we need these facilities in others areas but also crucially we need access to initiatives that are proven to save and improve lives like diamorphine assisted treatment and drug checking services. Although the Scottish Lord Advocate has supported diversion from prosecution Scotland had over 22,000 arrests for drug offences in 2022, it is fine to say publicly Scotland is treating drug dependency as a health issue, however this is not playing out in reality. Without swift action from Scottish Government around these points as our Cranstoun Director Meg Jones said "we could be sleeping walking into what is quite a significant public health crisis" this is even more so the case in Scotland with our already out of control drug death crisis without these drugs that are now appearing in the illicit drug supply. Cranstoun will release a full statement soon on the latest shocking numbers of people dying in Scotland outlining yet again as we have done consistently over the last 3 years exactly what the Scottish Government can do and what is in their power to do to start seeing these terrible and preventable death rates reduce. Our thoughts as always go out to all the family, friends and loved ones of those who have lost a loved one.