With regard to the types of drugs involved in drug-related deaths, the bulletin shows that in 93% of all drug-related deaths, more than one drug was found to be present in the body. Of all drug-related deaths in 2020, the following substances were implicated: • opiates/opioids (such as heroin/morphine and methadone) - 1,192 deaths (89% of the total) • benzodiazepines (such as diazepam and etizolam) - 974 (73%) 1 • gabapentin and/or pregabalin - 502 (37%) • cocaine - 459 (34%) In recent years there have been large increases in the numbers of deaths where the following substances were implicated: • ‘street’ benzodiazepines (such as etizolam), from 58 in 2015, to 879 in 2020 • methadone, from 251 in 2015, to 708 in 2020 • heroin/morphine, from 345 in 2015, to 605 in 2020 • gabapentin and/or pregabalin, from 131 in 2015, to 502 in 2020 • cocaine, from 93 in 2015, to 459 in 2020 The bulletin states that Scotland’s drug death rate was 3.5 times that for the UK as a whole, and higher than that of any European country.