A DRUGS campaigner has called for decriminalisation, to stem the “crisis” of deaths in West Dunbartonshire and across Scotland.

Donnie McGilvery, the general manager of recovery programme Alternatives, told the Post drug addiction should be treated as a “health and social” issue, as opposed to a criminal one.

The call comes as the number of people dying because of drugs has quadrupled in West Dunbartonshire over the past two decades.

The figures in neighbouring Glasgow have risen at an even more astonishing rate.

Mr McGilvery said: “I would certainly agree with the decriminalisation of drugs.

“We need to get back to seeing it as a medical and social issue.

“If it was just about stopping people from taking drugs, we wouldn’t be in the problem that we are in.

Read more: West Dunbartonshire drug deaths up by four times in two decades

“People return to drugs through social isolation, low life chances, and because of traumatic experiences.”

Statistics released by the National Records of Scotland show the deepening of the drugs crisis in the west of Scotland, including Clydebank and surrounding areas.

In 1996, five people lost their lives through drugs in West Dunbartonshire. By 2018, 20 people had lost their lives.

That number was up 25 per cent alone from 2017.

In Glasgow, the numbers have more than doubled in just 10 years, going from 121 in 2008 to 280 in 2018.

In 2018, 19 of the reported deaths in West Dunbartonshire were caused by accidental overdoses, and just one was the result of long-standing drug abuse.

That figure demonstrates a continuing trend in the area, where all drug deaths in 2017 were the result of accidental poisonings.

In West Dunbartonshire, heroin and other opiates proved to be the biggest killer, being found to have played a part in 16 deaths in 2018.

A new drug was also reported in the area for the first time this year - “street benzodiazepine”.

A total of 12 people lost their lives, at least in part, due to the new illicit drug.

The best way to limit the number of deaths, according to Alternatives, is to give people meaning in there lives, whether that be through work or education.

Mr McGilvery said: “We’re going in the wrong direction with the amount of deaths we are seeing.

“I think we have to look at much more robust interventions that are much more complex.

“The traditional approach of just trying to reduce drugs doesn’t work - people need meaningful activity.

“They need to feel safe, they need to feel valued to begin to explore why they are beginning to anaesthetise themselves from their experiences.

“We need people to be able to have direction in their life, and that requires investment in training, job opportunities, safety and social interaction.

“It’s an absolute scandal that we’re allowing this to continue.

“It’s a crisis, an absolute crisis.”

The campaigner, who has 35 years of experience working with people struggling with addiction, also called on both governments who run Scotland to work together.

He said: “The Scottish Government and Westminster really need to stop looking at each other for faults and need to start working together to find a solution.”

Professor Catriona Matheson, who has been chosen to lead a task force into the drug crisis, told the BBC the case for decriminalisation was a strong one.

She said: “It is about not putting these marginalised drug users into prison because that further marginalises them and that makes the recovery all the more difficult.”

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With the release of the new statistics, Scotland has been dubbed the “drug capital of the world”, overtaking the United States.

It was reported earlier this week that the number of deaths in 2018 would have to hit 1,180 to leapfrog America - the final number came in at 1,187.

The Scottish Government and Glasgow City Council want to introduce “safe consumption” facilities to tackle problem drug use, but the UK Home Office has blocked such a move.