Third of Scots drug death victims never treated, report shows

Minister for community safety, Fergus Ewing, admitted the statistics were "difficult and distressing", but pledged more would be done to identify those at risk.

The report looked at 432 deaths from overdoses, showing that 172 had not been in contact with treatment services at any stage in their lives.

The news comes on the same day that new statistics show that a quarter of the Scots population have experminted with drugs at some stage.

Mr Ewing said: "Earlier intervention through treatment may have been able to steer these people away from addiction and into recovery.

"This Government recognises the importance of people with drug problems being able to access the right treatment and support, at the right time.

The study showed that the majority of victims were white males from deprived area.

Most of those who died had been users for over five years, with heroin the most widely used substance.

Dr Roy Robertson, chairman of the National Forum on Drug-Related Deaths, said: "Establishing this national drug-related deaths database is a priority for Scotland because of our particularly worrying drug problem and associated mortality.

"Along with the annual figures from the General Registry Office, this database will provide great detail on the circumstances and possibly precipitating causes of deaths related to drugs in Scotland."

Meanwhile, a separate survey of drug use in Scotland in 2009/10, also published today, shows that 25 per cent of adults in Scotland have experimented with drugs.

One fifth of said they had smoked cannabis at some point in their lives, with 6.1 per cent admitting to using the drugs in the last year.

The next most commonly-used drugs were amphetamines, ecstasy, cocaine and poppers.

The survey - which does not count prisoners or students' drug habits- also revealed men are more likely to take drugs than women, with one in ten men reporting use compared to less than one in twenty women.