New figures released later are expected to show that more than 1,000 people died as a result of drugs in Scotland last year.
The number of drug-related deaths in Scotland soared to 1,187 last year, according to official statistics.
Scotland already has the worst record for reported drug overdose deaths in Europe but the latest figures will show another steep rise.
The figure is 27% higher than the previous year, and the highest since records began in 1996.
Last week, Scottish Public Health Minister Joe Fitzpatrick said the level of drug deaths was an "emergency".
The number of drug-related deaths in Scotland has more than doubled since 2008, when there were 574 deaths.
He told MPs this should be a "wake-up call" over UK government policy.
It means the country's drug death rate is now nearly three times that of the UK as a whole, and is higher than that reported for any other EU country.
There are estimated to be more than 60,000 problem drug users in Scotland, which has a population of five million.
The latest figures also mean Scotland has a higher drug death rate than the one reported for the US, which was previously thought to be the highest rate in the world.
Drug-related deaths in Scotland , where the primary cause of death is drug intoxication, have almost doubled in eight years, with 934 recorded in 2017, a rate of 170 per million of the adult population.
There were more than 70,000 drug deaths in the US in 2017 but the rate of 217 per million of the population is now lower than Scotland's rate (218).
There were 3,756 deaths relating to drug poisoning in England and Wales in 2017, a rate of 66 deaths per million.
However, countries differ in how deaths are recorded, and there may be under-reporting in some cases.
Dr Saket Priyadarshi, of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde addiction services, told MPs last week that Scotland had more than twice the rate of drug deaths as the rest of the UK because it had far more problem users.
What do the Scottish figures show?
He also said that Scottish users were taking a lethal cocktail of drugs that often combined opiates such as heroin and methadone with benzodiazepines, pills often known as street valium or street blues.
The statistics published by National Records of Scotland show that nearly three quarters - 72% - of those who died last year were male.
Most drug-related deaths involved heroin but a large percentage had also taken pills.
Opiates or opioids, such as heroin, morphine and methadone, were implicated in, or potentially contributed to, 1,021 deaths.
More than three-quarters of deaths due to drugs in 2017 were of people aged 35 and over.
Benzodiazepines such as diazepam and etizolam were implicated in, or potentially contributed to, 792 deaths.
Dr Priyadarshi said there was an ageing population of drug addicts, mainly men, who had been using heroin for decades and were now also taking new street pills, often containing etizolam which is stronger than prescription benzos.
There were 442 drug-related deaths of people aged 35-44, 345 deaths in the 45-54 age-group and 217 drug-related deaths of 25-34 year olds.
Earlier, this month The Daily Record newspaper launched a campaign calling for the decriminalisation of drug use.
It said Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Canada and, most notably, Portugal were among 25 nations to loosen the punitive attitude to drug possession to enable treatment programmes to succeed.
'I lost my mum, dad, two sisters and brother to drugs'
Jacquie, from Glenrothes in Fife, has told how her father, mother, two sisters and brother all died because of drugs.
She said losing her parents and siblings "was like a fire ripping through my family".
She was speaking ahead of new figures which are expected to show that the number of people who died of drugs in Scotland in 2018 reached more than 1,000.
Jacquie, 34, is herself a recovering drug addict.
She told BBC Scotland's The Nine: "It is scary how quick it can take a grip and devastate a family.
"I feel my life has been ruined.
"People could say that has been my fault, I understand that with the drug side. I can't help the fact that I have lost all my family to the drugs. And it is hard."
Jacquie, who began taking heroin at the age of 17 and is now trying to kick the habit, said she could not remember a time when the family wasn't affected by drugs.
She is the last remaining member of her immediate family - who all lived and died in the Fife town of Glenrothes.
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The woman leading the Scottish government's new drugs taskforce, Prof Catriona Matheson, told BBC Scotland the evidence for decriminalisation was strong.
She said: "It is about not putting these marginalised drug users into prison because that further marginalises them and that makes the recovery all the more difficult."
During evidence to the Scottish Affairs Committee, Mr Fitzpatrick praised the "bold move" taken in Portugal to decriminalise drugs but said his government in Scotland was unable to make changes as drugs policy was reserved to Westminster.
Glasgow City Council's plan for users to be able to take their own drugs under the supervision of medical staff at a special facility in the city would also need a change in UK law.
The Home Office has refused permission for Glasgow to set up the so-called "fix rooms", where users could inject heroin or cocaine in a safe and clean environment.
It was hoped the special room would encourage addicts into treatment, cut down on heroin needles on city streets and counter the spread of diseases such as HIV.
