1. This paper gives information about drug-related deaths in Scotland over the period 1996 — 2006, using the definition for baseline figures introduced in 2001. This definition was agreed by a working party set up following the publication, by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), of a report 1 on ‘Reducing drug related deaths’. The Office for National Statistics has also prepared data on drug-related deaths in England and Wales using this definition.
2. Paragraph 3 below gives some background on the collection of information on drug-related deaths in Scotland; paragraphs 4 — 11 summarise the main points arising from the information for 2006 and earlier years presented in Tables 1 — 6; and Annex A discusses the definition of drug-related deaths and gives a detailed description of the definition used in this paper.