Health experts have warned that Scotland faces a fresh drug deaths crisis due to highly potent synthetic opioids already linked to more than 100 fatalities.

The warning comes after the publication of official data which showed the total number of deaths from drug abuse in Scotland fell by 13% last year to a 1,017, the lowest annual figure since 2017.

The data suggests intensifying efforts to deal with Scotland’s drugs deaths, which have long been the worst in Europe, could be succeeding. This includes wider use of the opioid antidote naloxone by police and paramedics, and higher spending on addiction treatment and rehabilitation programmes.

But the Scottish Drugs Forum, a campaign group, said those figures were likely to be a blip which masked a recent surge in the use of nitazenes, a class of very potent synthetic opioids which can be hundreds of times stronger than other opiates and opioids used by addicts.

Kirsten Horsburgh, the chief executive of the Scottish Drugs Forum, said while the 2024 figures were welcome, there has been a sharp increase in overall drugs deaths reported in the first three months of 2025.

National Records of Scotland data showed there were 76 deaths involving nitazenes in 2024, a figure three times higher than in 2023. Data from Public Health Scotland suggested that may have doubled this year with nitazene detected in 38 deaths in the first quarter of 2025.

“There are still increasing harms and increasing numbers of deaths. We are not in a situation where we’ve achieved what we need to achieve. There’s still a lot to be done,” Horsburgh said.

“We’re very concerned. For us, this feels like a crisis on top of a crisis.”

She said they were likely to be implicated in other deaths. There were up to 360 different compounds classed as nitazenes, which made it far harder for toxicology laboratories to detect them. Drugs gangs also mixed them into other drugs without users being told, adding to the serious risks of death.

Nitazenes are also implicated in drugs fatalities in England. They were detected in 179 cases between June 2023 and May 2024. In some cases, more than one type of nitazene were found; in 17 cases, toxicologists could not identify exactly which was involved.

Scottish government ministers have struggled to tackle the drugs death crisis, which soared higher after a cut in alcohol and drugs treatment funding in 2015.

Maree Todd, the drugs and alcohol policy minister, said people in deprived areas were 12 times more likely to die from drugs misuse than those in wealthy areas.

“It is welcome that we have seen progress with the number of deaths at the lowest level since 2017, but I know there is still work to be done and we will continue to do everything we can to save and improve lives,” she said.

“This is particularly true as we face new threats from highly dangerous synthetic opioids like nitazenes, which further raise the risk of overdose and death.”

Prof Catriona Matheson, a specialist in drugs misuse at the University of Stirling, said the 2024 figures showed the previously steep increase in deaths had been reduced by the tougher policy measures.

“Unfortunately [in] 2025, there has already been an influx of synthetic opioids and animal tranquillisers which are affecting our drug supply chain and making it an even more hazardous environment,” she added.

“This highlights that we really do need further actions still on making sure we have drug checking services and safe supervised drug consumption sites across the country.”