Her public health minister, Joe FitzPatrick, lost his job following the publication of last year’s figures, and a dedicated drugs minister has now been appointed. The Scottish Government has pledged to invest £250m in addressing the “emergency” over the next five years.

However, the SNP administration had previously slashed funding for rehabilitation services and beds, with the party in power since 2007 and Ms Sturgeon a former health secretary.

Glasgow was again found to be the worst area for people struggling with addiction, with 291 people dying in the city last year. Opioids remained the number one cause of drug-related death in Scotland in 2020, and were involved in 1,192 of the 1,339 deaths. However, in nearly all deaths more than one drug was found to be present.

Use of benzodiazepines – known as “street valium” – which can cost as little as 50p per pill were implicated in 974 deaths last year. People in the most deprived areas were 18 times as likely to have a drug-related death as those in the least deprived areas, a ratio that has almost doubled in 20 years.

‘Pitiful excuses a disgrace’

Ms Sturgeon said she would not “shirk responsibility” and was determined to address the crisis. However, her claim that the statistics “pre-date” actions she set out at the start of the year was condemned as a “shameful attempt” at spinning the figures.

“Pitiful excuses about these statistics predating government actions are a disgrace,” Douglas Ross, the Scottish Tory leader, said. “The SNP have been in power for 14 years. Drug deaths are Scotland’s shame because of their inaction.

“It is a fact that this crisis has got worse every single year that Nicola Sturgeon has been First Minister. She took her eye off the ball and the consequences have been devastating. 

“This is not the day for political spin from the First Minister. It should be the time for decisive action. I urge her to back our Right to Recovery Bill proposal to guarantee in law that everyone who needs treatment can get it.”

Pamela Nash, a former Labour MP who is now chief executive of the Scotland in Union campaign group, said the SNP had neglected devolved services as it pursued its “obsession” over Scottish independence.

She said: “These are devastating figures, with each death a tragedy that has left loved ones without a parent, sibling, child, friend or neighbour. This shameful crisis is entirely of the SNP’s making, and no desperate attempt at spin by the First Minister can hide that fact.”

The Scottish Greens, in talks with the SNP about a power-sharing deal, suggested the statistics made the case for legalisation of drugs, claiming current policies across the UK had “demonstrably failed”.

Alex Cole-Hamilton, health spokesman for the Scottish Lib Dems, said: “Every drug death is preventable. However, that task became 10 times harder when SNP ministers cut the budget for critical prevention services by 22 per cent. Help and expertise that people relied upon was needlessly surrendered when it should have been expanded.”