The deadly new drugs reshaping Scotland's fight against addiction

Efforts to bring down Scotland's sky-high rate of drug deaths are being frustrated by the arrival of hundreds of powerful new synthetic substances that experts warn are making the deadly drugs crisis even more dangerous.

In the past three years, there has been an explosion in the supply of new synthetic cannabinoids and opioids, transforming the illicit drugs trade and increasing the risk of fatal overdoses.

Annual figures to be released on Wednesday are expected to show a rise in the number of drug-related deaths in Scotland, which already has an unenviable record as the drugs death capital of Europe.

"The illicit drug supply in Scotland is getting more and more dangerous," said Dr Lorna Nisbet of Dundee University's Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science.

Unlike heroin or cocaine, which are derived from cultivated plants, many of the new substances are manufactured in clandestine laboratories.

They include synthetic opioids such as nitazenes and orphines, some of which are hundreds of times more potent than heroin.

Police say organised crime groups are increasingly mixing the substances with existing drugs to maximise their profits.

"I think it's shameful behaviour that we're seeing from these organised crime groups," Supt Niven Bull, of Police Scotland, said.

"They are profiting from people's misery."

On average, a new psychoactive substance emerged every week in 2025, according to the European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA)., external

The agency says tighter controls imposed by China and the Taliban's ban on poppy cultivation in Afghanistan have pushed production closer to consumer markets.

That includes Scotland, where police have raided two suspected nitazene factories in the past 14 months, making five arrests in total.

In July 2025, officers discovered an alleged illicit drugs laboratory in Patna, Ayrshire, leading to the arrest of three people.

Deputy Chief Constable Jane Connors later described it as the UK's first suspected nitazene laboratory.

BBC News can also reveal that two men, aged 43 and 56, were arrested in February this year after police searched a unit in Loanhead, Midlothian, as part of an investigation into another suspected synthetic opioid lab.

In 2024, nitazenes were implicated in 76 drug-related deaths in Scotland, according to official figures, external, more than three times the number of the previous year.

"These drugs are extremely dangerous, and it's pretty rapid for us to be able to keep up as scientists," says Dr Nisbet, whose laboratory is soon set to take on an expanded role as Scotland's national drug testing facility.

The changing nature of the supply also creates challenges for lawmakers who are in a race to identify and ban dangerous new substances before they can spread legally and cause havoc.

"New and harmful substances continue to be created to circumvent legal controls," EUDA points out.

While control of illicit drugs is reserved to Westminster under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, responsibility for public health, policing and prosecutions is devolved to the Scottish government and its agencies.

On the front line of the battle to save lives, charity workers say they are seeing the devastating impact of the new synthetic opioids first-hand.

In the woods at Glenbarr on the Kintyre peninsula, staff from the drug, alcohol and mental health charity With You are trying to treat trauma in a group designed to help former drug and alcohol users reconnect with nature.

Gareth Balmer, the charity's national harm reduction lead, says nitazenes and other synthetic opioids are now appearing across the drug supply, from benzodiazepine (street Valium) pills and cannabinoids, known as spice, to cocaine and heroin.

"This is a frightening new landscape," he said. "I don't think drugs have ever been as risky or as dangerous as they are now."

The result is that some users are experiencing unexpected and sometimes catastrophic overdoses.

"Some of these substances are so potent that a grain would be enough to take somebody over," Balmer warned, adding that access to naloxone, which can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, is now more important than ever.

Bull said Police Scotland was taking a twin-track approach, promising to "relentlessly pursue" dealers while also recognising that many drug users need help.

In 2025, officers seized about £80m worth of street drugs. So far this year that figure has already reached £78m.

"Hundreds of individuals have been arrested, and many people are serving custodial sentences," Bull said.

But he added that the force also wanted to help users "to make better life choices".

"If we come across people who are suffering from addiction, who are in a low point in their life, then we will look to help support them and we'll look to refer them to the relevant agency," he said.

Prof Niamh Nic Daeid, director of Dundee University's Leverhulme laboratory, said its expanded role as a national drug testing and research centre would make a difference too.

On one hand, she said, her team will be able to provide near real-time information to drug-using communities, allowing them to make safer and more informed choices. On the other, the research will help to inform government policy.

"Drugs are changing all the time," she said. "Part of the establishment of this facility is to have a research capability that will enable us to try to keep up.

"If we don't know what substances are present in the samples, how can we provide the right advice?"

Back in Kintyre, Vicky Gamble, whose own struggles with alcohol, drugs and crime have seen her in and out of prison, is enjoying the tranquillity of the forest.

She is personally hopeful of a better future but she is worried about the emerging threat of new substances and the potential effect on friends and family.

"It seems that there's a lot of stuff that all the young ones seem to be taking now and I don't even think they know what it is," she told me.

For Gareth Balmer of With You, that uncertainty is part of the danger.

He says: "It's a terrible thing to say, but with heroin it was better the devil you knew."