Drug use: key references and evidence

Availability and Prevalence

Topic	Report	Author	Last Published	Frequency
Drug Seizures by Scottish Police Forces	Drug Seizures and Offender Characteristics, 2018/19 and 2019/20 (Tables)	Scottish Government	November 2021	Annual
Drug Misuse and Treatment in Scottish Prisons	SPS Addiction Prevalence Testing Stats Final 2017-18	Scottish Prison Service (SPS)	June 2019	Annual
Illicit Drug Use Among Adults	Scottish Crime and Justice Survey: Drug Module (Tables)	Scottish Government	March 2019	Annual
Illicit Drug Use Among Children	Scottish Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey (Tables)	ISD	October 2016	Irregular
Estimated Prevalence of Problem Drug Use	Estimating the National and Local Prevalence of Problem Drug Misuse in Scotland	G Hay, N McKeganey, S Hutchinson	2001	Archive
	Estimating the national and local prevalence of problem drug misuse in Scotland	G Hay, M Gannon, N McKeganey, S Hutchinson, D Goldberg	2005	Archive
	Estimating the national and local prevalence of problem drug misuse in Scotland	G Hay, M Gannon, J Casey, N McKeganey	2009	Archive
	Estimating the National and Local Prevalence of Problem Drug Use in Scotland 2009/10	ISD	2011	Archive
	Estimating the national and local prevalence of problem drug use in Scotland 2012/13 (Tables)	ISD	October 2014	Archive
	Estimating the national and local prevalence of problem drug use in Scotland 2015/16 (Tables)	ISD	April 2019

Social Harm

Topic	Report	Author	Last Published	Frequency
Perceptions of Drug Misuse	Scottish Crime and Justice Survey: Main Findings (Tables)	Scottish Government	March 2021	Annual
	Scotland's People: Scottish Household Survey	Scottish Government	January 2022	Annual
	A report on the findings from the 2009 Scottish Social Attitudes Survey Module about public attitudes towards illegal drugs and drug misuse in Scotland.	Scottish Government	May 2010	N/A
Drug Related Offences	Recorded Crime In Scotland, 2020-21 (Tables)	Scottish Government	September 2021	Annual
	Recorded Crime in Scotland: Council Level Breakdown	Scottish Government	February 2019	Annual
	Homicide in Scotland (Tables)	Scottish Government	October 2020	Annual
Court Activity and Sentencing	Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, 2019-20 (Tables)	Scottish Government	May 2021	Annual
	Criminal Proceedings in Scotland: Drug Related Criminal Proceedings by Council Area	Scottish Government	March 2019	Annual
	Criminal Justice Social Work Statistics in Scotland : Diversion from Prosecution(Tables)	Scottish Government	January 2019	Annual
	Criminal Justice Social Work Statistics in Scotland : Community Payback Orders (Tables)	Scottish Government	January 2019	Annual
	Criminal Justice Social Work Statistics in Scotland : Drug Treatment and Testing Orders (Tables)	Scottish Government	January 2019	Annual
	Reconviction Rates in Scotland: 2015/16 Offender Cohort (Tables)	Scottish Government	September 2018	Annual

Health Harm

Topic	Report	Author	Last Published	Frequency
Drug-related General and Psychiatric Hospital Discharges	Drug-Related Hospital Statistics Scotland 2020/21 (Dashboard)	PHS	November 2021	Annual
Primary Care consultations	Estimates of GP consultations relating to Drug Misuse	ISD	December 2013	Archive
Maternity and Neonatal Discharges	Births in Scottish Hospitals Year ending 31st March 2021 (Tables)	PHS	November 2021	Annual
Injecting Equipment Provision	Injecting Equipment Provision in Scotland 2020/21 (Tables)	PHS	October 2021	Annual
Blood Borne Viruses: Hepatitis C	Surveillance report: Surveillance of hepatitis C testing, diagnosis and treatment in Scotland, 2019 update	HPS	July 2019	Annual
Blood Borne Viruses: Hepatitis C	Hepatitis C in the UK	PHE	August 2018	Annual
Blood Borne Viruses: NESI	Needle Exchange Surveillance Initiative (NESI): Prevalence of HCV and injecting risk behaviours among people who inject drugs attending injecting equipment provision services in Scotland, 2008/2009 to 2019/20 (Tables)	PHS	April 2022	Annual
Blood Borne Viruses: Hepatitis B	Shooting up Infections among people who inject drugs in the United Kingdom 2020 (Tables)	UKHSA	February 2022	Annual
Blood Borne Viruses: HIV	HIV in People Who Inject Drugs 2017	HPS	September 2018	Annual
Bacterial Infections	An Outbreak of Anthrax Among Drug Users in Scotland, December 2009 to December 2010	HPS	December 2011	N/A
Bacterial Infections	Shooting up Infections among people who inject drugs in the United Kingdom 2020 (Tables)	UKHSA	February 2022	Annual
Drug Related Deaths	Drug-related deaths in Scotland in 2020 (Tables)	NRS	July 2021	Annual
Drug Related Deaths	The National Drug-Related Deaths Database (Scotland) Report: Analysis of Deaths occurring in 2015 and 2016 (Tables)	ISD	June 2018	Biennial

Treatment for Drug Misuse

Topic	Report	Author	Last Published	Frequency
SDMD	Scottish Drug Misuse Database (SDMD) Overview of Initial Assessments for Specialist Drug Treatment 2020/21: Final report (Tables )	PHS	May 2022	Annual
SDMD	Scottish Drug Misuse Database (SDMD) Report on People in Treatment – 2011/12 (Tables)	ISD	December 2012	N/A
Drug and Alcohol Waiting Times Database	National Drug and Alcohol Treatment Waiting Times Report October 2021 to December 2021 (Tables)	PHS	April 2022	Quarterly
Prescribing for Opioid Dependency	Drug Prescribing Scotland 2020/21	PHS	March 2022	Annual
Prescribing for Opioid Dependency	Prison Healthcare Snapshot of methadone prescribing figures per prison establishment	National Prisoners Health Network	June 2018	Biannual
Naloxone	National Naloxone Programme Scotland Monitoring Report 2019/20 and 2020/21 (Tables)	PHS	May 2022	Annual

Previous ISD drug-related reports are available on the ISD Drug and Alcohol Misuse Publications Page.

Effectiveness evidence

ScotPHO's purpose is to describe the pattern of health across the Scottish population. As a supplementary service to users, we include the following links to external sources of quality-assured evidence on effectiveness of interventions which may include relevant material for this topic. These links are provided as an aid to users. They are by no means exhaustive nor should they be necessarily viewed as authoritative.

NHS Health Scotland: Scottish briefings on NICE public health guidance

Centre for Reviews and Dissemination

Cochrane Library: Browse by topic

EPPI-Centre: Evidence library

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Evidence services: Evidence search

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Guidance: Find guidance

Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN)

Please note: ScotPHO is not responsible for the content or reliability of linked websites and does not necessarily endorse the views expressed within them. Listing should not be taken as endorsement of any kind. ScotPHO can take no responsibility for information contained on websites maintained by other organisations or for actions taken as a result of information contained on websites maintained by other organisations.

To report a broken link on the ScotPHO website, please email details to the ScotPHO team of the web page containing the broken link together with the web address you were unable to access.