HIS mother abused drugs but his own struggle with alcohol is what led Scots author Darren McGarvey to call on the Scottish Government to declare a public health emergency over drugs deaths.

The number of people dying as a result of drug misuse has risen for each of the last three years, and is predicted to climb to more than 1,000 a year by next year.

Mr McGarvey’s own recovery plan includes a commitment to “service” and when he speaks at a remembrance ceremony for all those who have died from drink, drugs or suicide in Glasgow’s George Square next week, it will help him deliver on that pledge.

“Helping other people helps keep me in a good place,” he says.

However, he is also passionate about the need to treat people who are struggling in life with more respect and humanity.

Mr McGarvey, whose book Poverty Safari, is a polemic on why people are poor, argues too little attention is paid to the plight of those addicted to alcohol or drugs.

The Scottish Recovery Consortium says that in addition to the 934 people who died from causes related to drug use, 1,235 people’s deaths were alcohol related and 680 people took their own lives last year.

Earlier this week the Scottish Drugs Forum (SDF) warned drug deaths would “almost certainly” top 1,000 in 2018.

Mr McGarvey said: “This is a public health emergency. Lives lost to drugs and alcohol are as important as those lost to any other reason. It is a horrifying death toll.”

He believes more people are using alcohol and drugs in response to an economic and cultural malaise in society.

He added: “People are looking for an escape from how they feel. With the economic uncertainty and cultural tension just now, society is too stressful, it is palpable.”

“At local authority level services that affect people such as homeless support are being cut. But the people who are better off aren’t pushing to change the policies.”

He called for an end to the stigma over substance misuse, adding: “It isn’t just the wealthy. Some working class people’s attitudes are shocking. There is a lot of hubris and public confusion with people thinking ‘why don’t they just pull themselves together?”

“I think we should rebel against hatred and stigma and show a bit more compassion and understanding.”

The SRC’s public remembrance ceremony in Glasgow on Thursday will draw attention to the number of lives being lost and the impact on not just themselves, but family members, friends and colleagues.

The call to declare a public health emergency is justified by the extraordinarily high level of drug related deaths here. According to figures from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) there were 2655 drug-related deaths in the UK in 2017 – Scotlandappears to contribute more than a third of that total.

By comparison France had 349 deaths directly attributable to drugs, a rate of 7 per million people and Portugal just 40, 5.8 per million inhabitants. The UK has 60.3 drugs deaths for every million of the population.

Scotland’s soaring death rate has not been explained. Theories have included geographical factors such as vitamin D deprivation. But this does not explain why Scandinavian countries are not similarly afflicted.

The impact of industrial decline and Thatcherite policies have been blamed for the rise in addiction in the 1980s, but this does not explain why the problem is not equally bad in the north of England.

To mark the scale of the loss, people from all over Scotland have been making wooden flowers to mark the life of a person they loved and lost to drugs, alcohol or suicide which will be planted in George Square on September 6th.

SRC chief executive Kuladharini said: “While these deaths represent only the tip of the iceberg, so many more people are living lives of quiet desperation and society and services are struggling to respond.”

She said the level of deaths was unacceptable and those affected by addiction were neither criminals nor weak minded.

“We are humans having a very human response to the growing tragedy of personal traumas, alienation from power and disconnection to the community,” she explained. “The organisations and individuals taking part in the public remembrance ceremony in George Square feel many of the major health challenges we face are, in fact, not separate issues but different manifestations of our collective distress. We numb our distress with alcohol and drugs.”

Recovery Walk Scotland, an annual event founded by SRC is also being held on September 15th. SRC is calling for the declaration of a public health emergency over the scale of loss to substances and suicide, and a rejection of the stigma surrounding those affected.

The Scottish Government is currently consulting on a new drug and alcohol strategy to replace “The Road to Recovery” which was published in 2009.

A new approach has been promised by ministers by the Autumn of this year.