What strategies it will employ to reduce the total number of drug-related deaths, as referred to in the justice section of Building a Bette…

Our Drugs Strategy is built around four key themes: young people, communities, availability and treatment. All of these themes are relevant to our objectives of reducing drug-related deaths and illness.For example, we support a wide range of projects intended to guide young people away from drug misuse towards healthy and positive lifestyles. Our Know the Score drugs communications work, including an information line, website and information materials, provides factual information about the risks to health from drugs, and where local help and advice can be obtained. Harm reduction information is targeted on drug misusers, and it provides advice on avoiding overdoses and explains risks from injecting and from blood-borne viruses.Treatment and rehabilitation programmes help those already involved in drug misuse, and these are intended to reduce dependence on illegal drugs and to restore patients to health, stabilise their lifestyles and to encourage them into training and employment. Because those being released from prison are particularly vulnerable to overdose, additional resources allocated to the Scottish Prison Service are being utilised to ensure effective links between prison and community treatment and care provision. This includes pre-release needs assessment and action planning and the provision of a simple facilitating service for prisoners in the period immediately around release. Evaluation of the service will track issues such as re-offending and the incidence of drug-related deaths.Our enforcement bodies are achieving considerable success in reducing the availability of illegal drugs, and protecting communities from drug-related crime. Seizures of Class A drugs, which pose the greatest risks to health, are at record levels.