The latest figures published by National Records for Scotland have revealed that just eight drug related deaths were recorded in West Dunbartonshire during 2013 — the lowest for a decade.

However, despite the huge reduction, the area still boasts the third highest average rate of drug user deaths in Scotland behind Dundee and Glasgow with the majority of residents being killed by heroin, morphine and methadone.

But last week Donnie McGilveray, general manager at the Dumbarton community based drug project, Alternatives, said although it was too early to tell if the current trend would last, he was pleased to see that progress was being made.

He told the Reporter: “Although eight deaths is still eight deaths too many, it’s moving in the right direction. It’ll be interesting to see where we are next year though to see if this is a blip.

“We don’t want to get too carried away with one statistic but if we see it similar next year we need to think what we are doing is making a difference.

“There was a drop across most places which indicates the general policy of trying to address drug deaths and trying to provide other resources is beginning to bear fruit.

“People can and do recover and more people with drug problems are seeing others in the community not only recover, but go on to hold on to jobs and that’s a great inspiration to know that there’s some hope at the end of the tunnel.” Across the country there has been a sharp rise in the number of deaths resulting from so-called legal highs.

And although the worrying trend hasn’t reached West Dunbartonshire yet, Donnie says Alternatives staff have seen an increase in the number of youngsters coming to them who have been using these types of substances.

He added: “We’ve seen a significant reduction in heroin. Thirteen years ago around 70 per cent of our clients came in with heroin as their main issue. It’s now down to somewhere like 32 per cent — that’s a significant fall.

“At our young person project, which is up to age 21, we had no-one presenting with heroin as their drug of choice. We have seen a move towards legal highs, cannabis, diazepam and alcohol.” Partnership working amongst many of the area’s organisations is also thought to have significantly helped in the battle against the number of narcotics related fatalities. Donnie added: “There’s a great deal of support in West Dunbartonshire given to joint working and multi-agency reviews and information sharing. No-one ever died from too much information but often people do from people not sharing information and in West Dunbartonshire we’ve got a robust protocol for information sharing and so far it seems to be working.” For more information about Alternatives go to www.alternativeswd.org or visit the Dumbarton office at 1-3 Quay Street or call 01389 734500.