Seven people have lost their lives to drugs in Stirling so far this year say police - and 25 across Forth Valley as a whole.
Senior local police officers told councillors the situation for 2021 up to this point mirrors that of last year.
But they disputed speculation that “bad batches” of drugs could be to blame for deaths.
The figures were revealed at a meeting of Stirling Council’s public safety committee last week where cops also revealed that, in the 12 months up to March this year, there were 441 drugs possession offences recorded - up by 3.8 per cent.
Supply offences had risen by seven while the total number of drugs crimes increased by 13 offences.
Councillors also heard that the Stirling community team had now been given the go ahead to become part of Police Scotland pilot scheme for the carrying of naloxone, a drug that can temporarily reverse the effects of an opioid overdose such as through heroin or methadone.
Stirling’s area commander, Chief Inspector Gill Marshall said: “Police officers will be trained and empowered to carry naloxone so they can administer that on scene. I’m delighted the Stirling community team have been offered the opportunity to get involved.
“It’s a personal decision for individual officers but fully supported by the management team and the training has started in Stirling.
“There have been nine administrations by officers of naloxone in the pilot so far [nationally] which is effectively nine lives saved.”
Last month the Observer reported that three people were recovering in hospital from suspected drug overdoses - two from Springkerse House homeless accommodation and the third from the Quakerfield area of Bannockburn.
And in January this year, the Observer also reported how the Stirling Christmas Cheer soup kitchen volunteers were left shaken by the sudden deaths of three people they helped over Christmas.
CI Marshall added: “There is a huge partnership element to tackling drugs in its widest sense. Sometimes those affected are involved in a criminality aspect but sometimes there are people on the periphery of that who are more vulnerable. We often find friends, associates, family members who are either present at the location of a previous death or have themselves been subject of non-fatal overdose and may be at risk of further drug misuse or worst case fatal. This is why we identify those vulnerable individuals and contact partners across agencies such as social work and make sure there’s a wraparound of all those services not necessarily for criminal purposes but for those identified as vulnerable.
“There is a huge public health element to this and an effort to get upstream in terms of education and ensuring that people leaving prison establishments are in that wraparound so they don’t get back into that situation.
“Cases of death are not related to one drug. I know the phrase ‘bad batch’ often gets used but that’s not something we have really seen a great deal of.
“It tends to be that people are taking multiple drugs or lots of different drugs in a small space of time.”
Detective Inspector David McGregor of Stirling CID said the drugs deaths in Stirling and Forth Valley were “reflective” of the position across Scotland.
He added: “There is nothing unique in what we are seeing in Stirling in terms of the age groups affected and people dying.
“We are seeing people who are a bit older and who have been using for a long time. Their bodies sometimes have just had enough.
“There’s one theory that one of the reasons we are seeing an increase year on year is because we are seeing an older generation of drug users.
“It’s certainly something we have seen.”
