Charity brings drug treatments to addicts' doors in lockdown

Support workers in Edinburgh making contactless deliveries of methadone to vulnerable clients

Recovering heroin addicts in Edinburgh who need to self-isolate are now receiving home deliveries of methadone, as experts call for further creative thinking to save lives.

With Scotland's drug deaths rate expected to have risen even higher when annual figures are published this summer, there have been warnings of another public health emergency on top of the coronavirus pandemic, as addicts abandon their substitute treatment prescriptions because of lengthy pharmacy queues, become estranged from support services, and risk overdose by turning to more dangerous alternatives when street supplies of heroin disrupted.