Scottish drug misuse database
Overview of Initial Assessments for Specialist Drug Treatment 2020/21: Final Report

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 2020/21. Information from the full first year of the COVID-19 pandemic are presented and the impact of this is discussed in more detail within the full report.

Main points

• Initial assessments for specialist drug treatment relating to 7,938 people resident in Scotland were recorded on the Scottish Drug Misuse Database. This was lower than in 2019/20 (10,898), reflecting the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting service interruptions and the transition of four NHS Boards to recording assessments on the Drug and Alcohol Information System (DAISy) from December 2020.

Time trend of the proportion of people reporting one of five drug categories as their main drug, between 2006/07 and 2020/21. Data are not available for 2012/13 and 2013/14 due to data quality issues. The use of heroin as the main drug remains the largest proportion, but has seen declines over the time period, from 64% in 2007/08 to 35% in 2020/21. Reporting of Cannabis and Diazepam as the main drug used in the month prior has remained fairly stable since 2014/15. There has been an increase in the proportion of people reporting the use of Cocaine/crack cocaine as their main drug since 2015/16, from less than 10%, to a peak of 21% in 2019/20. There has been a small decrease in the current year, to 18%. Reports of 'other sedatives' as the main drug has been historically low, but has seen an increase from 1% in 2018/19 to 4% in the current year.

Close

Main illicit drug used in the month prior to assessment by financial year

• The majority of people assessed for specialist drug treatment were aged 35 years or over (55%). The prevalence of this age group in specialist drug treatment services has increased substantially since 2006/07 (29%).
• Heroin remained the substance for which people most commonly reported needing help. Among those who indicated recent drug use, the percentage of people reporting heroin as their main drug was 35%, a substantial decrease from 63% in 2006/07.
• Among those who indicated recent drug use, the percentage of people reporting cocaine as their main drug was 18%. From 2006/07 to 2015/16, between 5% and 8% of people reported cocaine or crack cocaine as their main drug. This percentage increased sharply from 2015/16 onwards, peaked at 21% in 2019/20 and decreased slightly in 2020/21.
• The percentage of people assessed for specialist drug treatment who reported that they were currently injecting drugs was 9%, a substantial decrease from 28% in 2006/07.
• The sharing of needles/syringes was reported by 4% of people. This percentage decreased from 11% in 2006/07 to 6% in 2011/12 and has remained approximately the same since. The sharing of other injecting equipment was reported by 4% of people, a decrease from 18% in 2006/07.      

Background

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. Data are presented from 2006/07 onwards.

This release should be viewed in conjunction with the associated Excel workbook below which provides users with accessible, interactive content based on data from 2006/07 to 2020/21.

Further information

Data from this publication are available from the publication page on our website.

Open data from this publication is available from the Scottish Health and Social Care Open Data platform.

This will be the last National Statistics report from the Scottish Drug Misuse Database, following the introduction of the Drug and Alcohol Information System (DAISy) in April 2021.