NEW figures suggest heroin use in Scotland has fallen substantially in the last decade. The statistics in the Scottish Drugs Misuse Database published yesterday say of all those who used specialist drugs services last year, 47 per cent were looking for treatment for heroin, compared to 64 per cent in 2006/07.

There was also a massive reduction in young heroin users. In 2015/16, one in four under 25s, around 341 people, reported recent heroin use compared to 1592 in 2006/07, around 58 per cent of all those presenting. While the number of over 35s jumped from 30 per cent to 50 per cent in the same period.

The report also noted a general downward trend in the percentage of individuals who reported that they were currently injecting, and a halving of the users sharing needles, from 12 per cent to six per cent.

Public Health Minister Aileen Campbell said: “Drug taking in the general population is falling and levels of drug taking among young people remain low.

“Despite this, there is a vulnerable group of people who have been using drugs for many years and who experience other chronic medical conditions alongside their drug use. For many years Scotland has faced the difficult task of rehabilitating this ageing generation of individuals.

“That is why we have funded the Scottish Drugs Forum to identify and understand the current needs of this vulnerable cohort of drug users and will look to predict their future medical and support needs, helping to reduce any additional demands on our health services. A report will be published later this year.

“We are pleased to see that the number of people injecting drugs, and the number who are sharing equipment, has continued to fall.

“The provision of clean injecting equipment is an important harm reduction strategy that seeks to minimise the risk of transmission of hepatitis C and HIV amongst those who inject. Its provision is highly cost effective when compared against the treatment costs of hepatitis C and/or the lifetime treatment costs of HIV infection.

“We have invested significantly in prevention services and injecting equipment provision under the auspices of our work on hepatitis C since 2008. As a result of this and other activities we have seen a real reduction in the number of new infections of hepatitis C in injecting drug users in recent years.”

Glasgow is in the middle of an HIV outbreak, caused by chaotic intravenous drug users sharing needles or other equipment.

Prior to the outbreak in 2015, there were rarely more than 10 cases a year. In February, there had been 88 cases diagnosed in just two years.