SNP drugs minister Maree Todd has vowed to never “sit back, relax and say ‘job done’” in the fight to end Scotland’s reign as Europe’s drug death capital.

The former mental health pharmacist took on the role in June, moving from social care after the death of Christina McKelvie.

The latest data shows drug death rates increased between 2022 and 2023, and grew by 15 per cent between March and May this year compared with the previous quarter.

“We’ve seen some significant progress, but each of these deaths is an absolute tragedy," Ms Todd.

“We need to be thinking, why is it that Scotland faces this challenge and what can we do to shift the likelihood that people growing up in Scotland will turn to drugs and alcohol as they grow older?”

Backing the Thistle Centre in Glasgow, the UK’s first safe consumption room, which has has supervised 3,008 injecting episodes and dealt with 39 medical emergencies since it opened, she added: “People would definitely have died if they had not been in that unit.”