Do you ever see a headline that seems to come up again and again?

Every year the National Records of Scotland publishes statistics on drug related deaths across the country. And every year the headlines look the same.

This was the first year since 2013 that the number of deaths didn’t increase. But when 1,330 people have died these are always going to be heartbreaking numbers.

And those same-old headlines struggle to communicate that.

Underneath there’s much more. Personal stories of tragedy, of system failure and missed opportunities for support and treatment to be offered. And stories, too, of potential solutions.

That’s why when it comes to an issue like drug deaths in Scotland, we are committed to reporting that goes far beyond the one day of the year when the statistics are released.

At The Ferret we’ll still help you make sense of the numbers.

When the statistics were released last week we reported on the record number of women’s drug deaths and the Ferret Fact Service published an explainer on Scottish drug deaths, looking at how they compare with the UK and Europe.

But we go further. Over the last year we worked with a team of citizen journalists with experience of addiction to look at the often overlooked overlap with homeless, mental health and criminal justice. In March we published our From The Margins series and teamed up with BBC Scotland to produce our first documentary too.

And when it comes to in depth reporting, the topics we cover are wide-ranging.

You can also see this coverage in our archive - a rich resource of news, features, solutions and coverage from the last few years.

Headlines will never capture the whole story. But we think that journalistic commitment to an issue gives the people fighting to change it an essential platform and resource.

We’d love to hear from you about key topics that could use some explainers and committed coverage from our team. We believe good journalism changes things, and that understanding the things you need to change is the very first step…