James McMillan Oban grew up on a hill at a hill over a hill at a clean-day-day-door next door of McCish. Now they lie shoulder to shoulder in the penifuir cemetery.

On the latest Headstone Scotland’s West Coast on the Gravyard’s freshly digging fringe, this beautiful tourist tells a dangerous story of a lost generation in the city.

Oban is a home of only 8,000 people and at least eight recently confirmed or suspected victims of drug abuse were buried here. The youngest was 26, the oldest 48.

The city’s population is the same as the total number of overdose deaths recorded in Scotland in the last seven years – The worst rate ever in Europe.

Deaths have called for immediate action to deal with addiction in rural Scotland, including problems in reaching out to significant services to relatives.

Scotland Health Secretary Neil Gray has told BBC News that he accepts more requirements to deal with drug abuse in rural areas.

James’s mother, for Jane Don, began a nightmare before morning in a cold night in December 2022, when she woke up from Dorbel.

“From 10 to five in the morning, when it was snowing and my Christmas tree was up, the police came to my door,” she says.

Officers came, as Jene had long dreaded, to reveal that his 29 -year -old son had died of an overdose.

James was another victim of a crisis that has been growing across Scotland for almost a decade, claiming 1,172 lives in 2023.

“As a small boy, he was full of blonde-hair, blue-eyed, mischief,” Jane tells me in the living room of the family’s house.

The young James loved “fishing, music and its skateboard”, she says.

“As a man, there are not such good memories,” Jane says.

“He was very mixed. He was very angry. He was very lost.”

Jayne says that she knew very little about what she was happening there. Really, his son’s life was uprooting.

They were detected at the activity disorder, bipolar disorder and drug-induced psychosis of the attention deficit.

He was struggling with a suicidal tendency, taking more and hard drugs and rapidly turning to crime.

As a result, he was in custody for drug crimes, peace, break-in and theft at a point serving a two-year prison.

James died on 16 December 2022 in Glasgow – two days after being released from custody eight months after remand on remand at Barlini Jail.

James’s mother says that she does not know the details of the final allegations she faced or why she was released – but she believes that her son could be done more to support her son , Because he had left the release from custody on the last three occasions.

A source of the Scottish jail service said that the decision taken at the end of the remand period is a case for the courts for the jail.

Jayne describes a web of organizations that are dealt with with his son: charities, local authorities, NHS, addiction services, housing providers and more.

But she says: “She was released in a city that he knew without jacket, no money and no one.

“He lasted for less than 36 hours.”

Lisa Mcusush grew up next to James on a road down on Oban Bay, where red and black Calledonian McBrayne resolved the stir from the islands of Hebrids and for it.

Oban was recently named the Town of the Year of Scotland by an organization that promotes small communities.

Today, Lisa’s sister Tanya, sitting in the living room of Jayne, recalling tears in her eyes, recalling her brother -in -law as a “greater than life character” with “A Heart of Gold”.

Tanya says, “Lisa was never in drugs, you know, that was not.”

Things began to go wrong only after Lisa determined diazepam, which is usually used to treat anxiety, seizures or muscle cramps.

Tanya remembers, “He finished buying it on the streets because he felt that he needed more.”

“She kept saying that she needs more help, more support.”

Then, she says, her sister started taking heroin.

Lisa was arrested for cardiac on 13 September 2022 and died four days later in a hospital in Pasley. She was 42 years old.

His system had prescription drugs and ATizolm also, a benzodiazepine-type substance commonly known as a street vallium because it is often sold illegally.

Tanya and Jayne take us to the place where both of them mourn, pointing to other tombs nearby where drug death victims are recently buried.

They include James’s best friend, who lies with him and Lisa. He was 30 years old when he died of a drug overdose.

“It is terrible to think that here are at least 10 that we can think,” Jayne says.

There is no official breakdown of how many lives have been claimed by drugs in small communities like Obn.

We are able to confirm that at least eight deaths occurred within just one and a half years and belonging to drugs, or are still subject to investigation.

This is the reality of Scotland’s drug death, which is just a crisis in a small community and both Tanya and Jayne say the Scottish government should do more to save lives.

“I personally believe that there is a lot of addiction with mental health,” says Tanya.

“There is no continuity in support of intoxication services or mental health services. There is no link.”

Jane, who is a drug support worker, says he spent the year in an attempt to bring James to Oban’s house, where he felt that he would have a better chance of recovery and survival.

A special challenge, she says that the Argil and the Bute Council offered Donoon and James Housing Place in Hallensburg – both about two hours away – it became very difficult for his family to support him.

The local authority said that it had given James “suitable” services.

The council said that it had housing services throughout the region, but could not always satisfy “personal and sometimes changing criteria”.

Scotland Health Secretary Neil Gray says that both families have deep sympathy and they admit that rural drug services can be improved.

“I think the two cases you have highlighted, tell me that much more can be done,” he said.

“I believe that everything is not available in all parts of Scotland.”

Mr. Gray said: “We support alcohol and drug partnership in Scotland, whether in rural areas or in urban areas.

“I would clearly like that we continue to do more to ensure that facilities and services in rural and island areas have access to.”

Charity, affected by alcohol and drugs, for the Chief Executive Justina Murray of the Charity Scottish families, not lies with the problems not with strategy or money but with culture and distribution, especially in NHS’s addiction services.

She says, “People want services that are in their community, they can reach when they need them, they are going to meet at the door with a friendly face,” she says.

“They are going to treat with dignity and respect.

“It is not necessary that you experience attached to an NHS or legal treatment service.”

According to the latest available data released in September 2024, 513 residential rehabilitation bed capacity in Scotland is in 25 features.

There are only 11 beds available by the Scottish government, which is considered by the Scottish government in very remote rural areas, although most of the features accept referrals from any part of Scotland.

I ask Jane and Tanya about the argument that individuals and their families should take more responsibility for their choice instead of the state.

“No one goes out to be a drug addict in life,” Jane replied.

“Nobody chooses it. The issue of mental health was that James inspired to avoid reality and escape.

“Then he no longer had the ability to make his choice. He was not James.

“These are weak adults who are unable to protect themselves from danger or loss,” says Tanya.

“Why is not being done more?”

“Something has changed,” Jane agrees.

“We are losing a lot of youth.”