It came as no surprise to people who have lost a friend or family member to drugs that the latest report showed another record number had died last year.

Every year for the last seven years, the number in Scotland has increased.

The sorry, shocking and shameful total for 2020 is 1339 across Scotland and 291 of them are in Glasgow.

READ MORE: Drug deaths hit shocking new record in Glasgow and Scotland

That number 291 is huge. It is 291 people whose lives have been cut short because of an addiction to drugs.

And it is drugs. It is not just one drug. In almost every death there was multiple drugs present.

Heroin and opioids like Methadone are the ever present since Scotland began recording the deaths.

There have been other changes along the way, some years there are more amphetamines, in recent years there has been a rise in cocaine.

But in the last few years, what is noticeable is the increase in benzodiazepines, particularly street valium.

Sold cheaply, cheaper than chips, and easily available to anyone who wants them.

The drugs however are in many cases only part of the problem, a symptom of other bigger problems in our society.

If you listen to people who have experienced addiction, many will be able to look back and point to when they had a problem. It was not necessarily obvious to them at the time it was a cause.

READ MORE:People tell stories of those lost to drug deaths in Glasgow

Often there is a trauma as a trigger, death, abuse, addiction in the family, neglect, violence.

And often these events were not recognised and people given support at the time.

The statistics also showed that drug related deaths are 18 times more likely to happen to someone in the most deprives parts of Scotland.

The three council areas with the highest rates were Dundee, Glasgow and Inverclyde.

We don’t need Miss Marple to work out the common denominator there.

The problem has allowed to get worse.

In 2000 drug deaths were ten times higher in the most deprived communities.

People in the most affluent communities die from addiction too, and also in too high numbers.

But in many cases, people in these areas are able to access private rehab services, with the help and the finances of family.

Since 2000, the most deprived communities have seen a rise in poverty, a widening of inequalities and in the last decade they have borne the brunt of the austerity and the savage cuts to local government services.

It ultimately falls to local councils and health boards to deliver the addiction services.

For many years they had to contend with cuts not only in their own budget but in the specific budget for alcohol and drug partnerships.

It is no surprise that addiction got worse and more people carried on further down the road towards a drug related death while Scotland look on from the side.

With last year’s record figure, the Scottish Government was finally shamed into taking action.

It announced £250m over five years for addiction services and £20m a year for rehab.

It sounds like a lot of money. It’s not.

The £20m a year is equal to just under £15,000 for everyone who died in 2020.

Its too late for them, just like it’s too late for the 1264 who died in 2019 and the 1187 who died in 2018 and the thousands before over the last 25 years.

It is not enough for the thousands more who are currently walking on the road towards next year’s drug deaths.

It is not enough for the thousands who have been kept alive only by getting the overdose reversal drug naloxone in time, who might not be so lucky the next time.

The First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, yesterday said in response to the drug death figures that they “predate actions set out at the start of the year”.

She admitted they were” shameful” but also noted that reform of drug laws were “not currently within our power”.

The figures were shameful in 2007 when the SNP took over and the shame has grown bigger with every passing year.

The drug laws are the same as the rest of the UK, yet Scotland has a rate more than three times that of England.

Government and most of the rest of society has watched on for the last ten years while this crisis has grown out of control, into a national catastrophe.

However, we can’t realistically, and in all seriousness, say this is Nicola Sturgeon and her government’s fault and their fault alone.

The people who spoke in Buchanan Street yesterday told us of their pain, their suffering and their struggle to get better.

They spoke from the heart and they spoke articulately.

They told us of the people they had lost.

Most of all they told us of their battle to get help, while they were demonised, stigmatised and blamed for their own addiction.

In short, we left thousands of our people to die. We could all see the increase in people on our streets and in our communities who needed help but in many ways they were invisible.

It is indeed Scotland’s shame.