Scottish drug misuse database
Overview of initial assessments for specialist drug treatment 2019/20

About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland presents the information available from the Scottish Drug Misuse Database (SDMD) on people presenting for initial assessment at specialist drug treatment services in 2019/20. On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organisation declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Information from the initial weeks of the pandemic are presented and the impact of this is discussed in more detail within the full report.

Main points

• In 2019/20, initial assessments for specialist drug treatment relating to 10,900 people resident in Scotland were recorded on the Scottish Drug Misuse Database.
• Just over half of people assessed for specialist drug treatment were from older age groups; in 2019/20 the percentage of people who were aged 35 years or over was 54%, a large increase from 29% in 2006/07.
• Heroin was the substance for which people most commonly reported needing help. In 2019/20, among those who indicated recent drug use, the percentage of people reporting heroin as their main drug was 36%, a substantial decrease from 63% in 2006/07.

• Reported heroin use has decreased sharply among younger people; in 2019/20 the percentage of people aged under 25 years reporting heroin use in the month prior to assessment was 18%, a decrease from 58% in 2006/07.
• In 2019/20, among those who indicated recent drug use, the percentage of people reporting cocaine as their main drug was 21%. This percentage has increased sharply in the years since 2015/16. From 2006/07 to 2015/16, between 5% and 8% of people reported cocaine or crack cocaine as their main drug.
• In 2019/20 the percentage of people assessed for specialist drug treatment who reported that they were currently injecting drugs was 11%, a substantial decrease from 28% in 2006/07.
• In 2019/20, the sharing of needles/syringes was reported by 5% of people. This percentage decreased from 11% in 2006/07 to 6% in 2011/12 and has remained approximately the same since.
• In 2019/20, the sharing of other injecting equipment was reported by 6% of people, a decrease from 18% in 2006/07.

Background

The Scottish Drug Misuse Database (SDMD) was set up in 1990 to collect information about people seeking specialist treatment for problematic drug use in Scotland. Data are presented from 2006/07 onwards. Due to changes to the data collection proforma, information collected prior to April 2006 is not directly comparable with recent data.

The SDMD is a unique source of data and provides insights into drug treatment needs and the social circumstances and behaviours of people at the point when they contact services for treatment.

This release should be viewed in conjunction with the Excel workbook which is publicly available and provides users with accessible, interactive content based on data from 2006/07 to 2019/20.

Further information

For more information on SDMD see the Scottish Drug Misuse Database section of our website. For related topics, please see the Substance use pages.

The Scottish Public Health Observatory (ScotPHO) provides information on various aspects of drug misuse in Scotland: ScotPHO drug misuse section (external website).

The next release of this publication will be in Spring 2022.