Drug-Related Deaths Among Young People in a Scottish Region: A Socio-Ecological Autopsy Approach to Understanding the Context of Drug Deaths

Complex and fragmented services struggled to respond holistically to early signs of difficulties and to the young people's cumulative experience of trauma and adversity, mental ill-health and drug-related harms in the context of prohibition. There is a need for a radical rethink of systems to enable integrated youth-centred approaches that meet the needs of those at risk of drug-related deaths and to address the broader social and structural contexts of drug deaths.