The National Records of Scotland has revealed that more than 1,300 people have died of drug misuse in Scotland in the last year.
NHS Lothian was the third lowest on the table of drug related deaths between 2016-2020 with 16.1 per 100,000 of the population (age-standardised rates) - stats were not shown for areas with rates fewer than 10.
Between 2016-2020, Greater Glasgow and Clyde had the highest drug-related death rate of all health board areas with 30.8, followed by Ayrshire and Arran with 27.2 and Tayside with 25.7.
The latest figures show that Scotland has seen a record number of deaths for the seventh year in a row.
The annual figures showed that there were 1,339 drug deaths in 2020 - an increase of 75 from the 1,264 recorded in 2019.
This means that Scotland continues to have the worst drug death rate recorded by any country in Europe.
This rate is more than three and a half times that of England and Wales.
The number of drug-related deaths has increased substantially over the last 20 years – the report says that there were four and a half times as many deaths in 2020 compared with 2000.
The report also states that men were 2.7 times as likely to have a drug-related death than women - this was after adjusting for age.
After adjusting for age, people in the most deprived parts of the country were 18 times as likely to die from a drug-related death as those in the most affluent areas.
Almost two thirds of all drug-related deaths were of people aged between 35 and 54.
It also finds that the average age of drug-related deaths has increased from 32 to 43 over the last 20 years.
Scotland’s drug-death rate continues to be over three and a half times that for the UK as a whole, and higher than that of any European country.
More than one drug was found to be present in the body of more than 90 percent of those who died of a drug related death.
Heroin, methadone as well as other opiates were involved in 1,192 deaths while benzodiazepines such as diazepam and etizolam were involved in 974.
Gabapentin or pregabalin were present in the bodies of 502 people who died, and cocaine in 459.
There have been large increases in the numbers of deaths where "street" benzodiazepines, such as etizolam, in recent years, from 58 in 2015 to 879 last year.
