Scottish Drugs Forum Conference 2018 – Working together to Prevent Drug Related Deaths

Kira and Emma at Stop the Deaths event

The Scottish Drugs Forum (SDF)  held a national conference in late August 2018 – Working together to Prevent Drug Related Deaths which members of the Crew staff team attended.

With speakers from Police Scotland, the Scottish Ambulance Service and keynote speaker Marilou Gangon who is the President of the Harm Reduction Nurses Association all the way from Canada.

SDF used the conference to launch their powerful new campaign “Stop the Deaths” which seeks to raise awareness of the stark rise in drug related deaths in Scotland. Drug related deaths in the UK have been rising year on year with Scotland registering a rate which is 8 times the European average.

With a 105% increase in the past 10 years, there was a 24% increase in the number of people aged 24 and under who died between 2016 and 2017.  31% of the 176 ‘cocaine’ deaths in last years records were of people who were aged 25-34, compared with 20% of all drug-related deaths.

We are proud to support the campaign and hope that you can support us in our work too. Find out more about our training and how to donate.