'I'm lucky to be here': Data reveals scale of overdoses in south Scotland as deaths remain high

Every day, of every month, for the past three years, an ambulance has been dispatched somewhere in largely rural southern Scotland to deal with a suspected overdose.

Exclusive data obtained by ITV News Border showed that there were an average of 2.2 ambulance call-outs to a suspected overdose across Dumfries and Galloway and the Scottish Borders in 2023, with a total of 821 recorded during the year.

However figures have dropped slightly since 2021, when the data showed an average of 2.4 incidents a day were recorded.

Data was obtained via a Freedom of Information request to the Scottish Ambulance Service, and isn't broken down by type of overdose - so could include those caused by alcohol and other legal substances. It also doesn't differentiate between deliberate and accidental overdoses.

Scott Richardson, a harm reduction worker for the drug and alcohol charity With You in the border's town of Galashiels, said he wasn't surprised by the numbers.

"There is a lot of people out there who are having some challenges with substance misuse at the moment," he said.

He suggested that poly-drug use, where people use more than one substance at the same time, was contributing to the numbers. There are also concerns that powerful nitazene type drugs are entering the supply, increasing the risks of overdose.

"It's the strength, the potency of it," Scott explained. "It's a lot more stronger than heroin."

Scotland remains the drug deaths capital of Europe, recording 1,172 deaths in 2023. One former addict who now volunteers for support service Borders in Recovery told ITV News he had suffered from multiple overdoses.

"My go to substances were the ones that numbed me the most," Scott Happer said. "Heroin, benzodiazepines, which, taken together, can be really dangerous."

"I'm lucky to be here really," he added.

"One minute you're conscious, you're talking. You take it and it's not till you come round with people gathered round you, or you wake up in hospital, that you realise what's happened."

Scott credits a treatment called Naloxone for saving his life. Produced as both an injection and a nasal spray, it rapidly reverses the affects of an opioid overdose. The Scottish Government launched a national scheme rolling it out across the country in 2011, and say they continue to encourage health boards to embed it within local areas.

In a statement the Scottish Health Secretary Neil Gray said: “Increasing the provision and availability of naloxone, which provides time for emergency services to arrive and for further treatment to be given, is a key priority in our national mission to reduce harm and help save lives.

“Figures show 7,589 take home naloxone kits were issued from October to December last year for those at risk of opioid overdose.

“We’re working hard to respond to the growing threat from super-strong synthetic opioids like nitazenes in an increasingly toxic and unpredictable drug supply."

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