The Ballad Of The Fix

BBC Radio 4, 2019

The story of Scotland's deadly drug crisis narrated by the voice of the narcotic itself. Scotland has the highest rate of reported drug deaths in the European Union. There has been a rapid rise of cheap, imported synthetic drugs - especially Etizolam, an illegal tablet similar to Valium but with an unpredictable potency often many times higher. But why do so many people, especially young men, feel drawn towards this dangerous self-medication?

Scottish poet Niall Campbell explores the lives and deaths of a small number of drug users and of their families in Dundee. Using original music and found sound, Niall’s poem weaves through first-hand accounts of the addictive process to create an elegy to the lost and those they leave behind.

The Ballad of the Fix is a companion piece to The Ballad of the Blade (2018) in which Momtaza Mehri listened to the voices of young people involved in knife crime.

Composition, sound design & mix: Jon Nicholls

Producer for the BBC: Monica Whitlock