Scotland's 'Trainspotting generation' drives drug-related hospital admissions

Scotland’s 1980s “Trainspotting generation” has driven drug-related hospital admissions to a record high while illnesses linked to long-term alcohol abuse are also on the rise, official figures show.

Hospital stays linked to opioids, of which the main street drug is heroin, have risen fivefold from 791 in 1996/97 to 4,511 in 2014/15, figures from NHS Scotland’s Information Services Division (ISD Scotland) show.