The Committee therefore agreed to draw your respective committees’ attention to the key issues that arose during our evidence session with the AGS, to inform any future work on drug and alcohol services. 1 Lack of progress in addressing drug and alcohol challenges Key message 1 of the briefing sets out the stark reality of the drug and alcohol crisis in Scotland as follows— “In Scotland, 1,339 people died from drug-related causes in 2020 – the highest ever reported and the highest rate in Europe.