Why is this happening?

[Organ Morgan.]

I notice 6 of the bottom 7 countries for drug-related deaths at the BBC link in the opening post are East European. The one which isn't, Portugal, has a more liberated approach which has proved wildly successful. Bottom of all is Romania. It's definitely the poorest too and a certainty their citizens have less disposable income and suffer greater levels of deprivation than Scotland's population. I think we can safely discount the possibility of taking solace in mind-altering substances as relief from misery to explain why one's top and the other is bottom. Perhaps it's cultural reasons or that heroin and the like is less easily available. Another possibility is Scots, for whatever reasons, have a difficult to pinpoint weakness for prohibited drugs (and for grog too) compared to the rest of the UK.

[the other bob wilson]

I notice 6 of the bottom 7 countries for drug-related deaths at the BBC link in the opening post are East European. The one which isn't, Portugal, has a more liberated approach which has proved wildly successful. Bottom of all is Romania. It's definitely the poorest too and a certainty their citizens have less disposable income and suffer greater levels of deprivation than Scotland's population. I think we can safely discount the possibility of taking solace in mind-altering substances as relief from misery to explain why one's top and the other is bottom. Perhaps it's cultural reasons or that heroin and the like is less easily available. Another possibility is Scots, for whatever reasons, have a difficult to pinpoint weakness for prohibited drugs (and for grog too) compared to the rest of the UK.

I noticed that as well and I agree that it is something that does suggest that poverty alone is not the cause of these worrying trends in this country - here's another life expectancy story from last year which asks plenty of questions about the UK;-

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/98...ent-for-health

[RonnieBird]

I notice 6 of the bottom 7 countries for drug-related deaths at the BBC link in the opening post are East European. The one which isn't, Portugal, has a more liberated approach which has proved wildly successful. Bottom of all is Romania. It's definitely the poorest too and a certainty their citizens have less disposable income and suffer greater levels of deprivation than Scotland's population. I think we can safely discount the possibility of taking solace in mind-altering substances as relief from misery to explain why one's top and the other is bottom. Perhaps it's cultural reasons or that heroin and the like is less easily available. Another possibility is Scots, for whatever reasons, have a difficult to pinpoint weakness for prohibited drugs (and for grog too) compared to the rest of the UK.

Well I find that I increasingly have to employ East Europeans for the very reason that they're not as drug infested as young English blokes. It's hard to find anyone in the native population who's not at it to some degree. Therefore I don't think it's to do with conditions in their countries as much as the fact that they're from a Christian country and retain some of the values which made us successful in the past .
I also notice that those who speak English the least are the best because they don't get infected by the media so much.
There's also the thing that they come from countries where they've suffered the effects of socialism being practised for a few generations and so they understand how evil it is and reject it's various destructive dogmas .