Home | Archive | Weekly | Reports
Daily news - 1st December 2025 |
 |
UK news
Clinical guidelines for alcohol treatment
UK clinical guidelines recommending interventions for people with harmful patterns of drinking and alcohol dependence, supporting and promoting good practice | DHSC, UK
Consultation outcome - UK clinical guidelines for alcohol treatment
We received 776 responses to the consultation, which came from across the UK. The responses were predominantly positive. Nearly three-quarters (72%) of respondents who answered the question about whether the draft guidelines covered all the main topics in alcohol treatment said that they did. We did not need to make any changes to the substantive recommendations in the guidelines | DHSC, UK
Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2023/4
This survey provides data on the prevalence of both treated and untreated psychiatric disorder in the English adult population. It was found that hazardous drinking declined, while the proportion reporting signs of drug dependence rose. Signs of dependence on illicit drugs increased from 3.8% of 16 to 64 year olds in 2014 to 6.7% in 2023/4, mostly related to increases in signs of dependence on cannabis | NatCen, UK
Smoke and Mirrors - Unmasking disinformation from the tobacco industry (PDF)
Disinformation threatens our ability to improve public health, muddying the information water. It can aggravate debates and exacerbate divides within the tobacco control community, as well as impede the development and implementation of life-saving public health initiatives. Ultimately, disinformation can be used by the tobacco industry to serve its interests, often at the expense of public health | Bath University, UK
Clinical use of nitrous oxide could help treat depression, major study shows
Largest analysis of global trial data shows clinical nitrous oxide as a promising rapid-acting treatment for depressive disorders | University of Birmingham, UK [See also Blogs section below]
Medical Cannabis and Epilepsy: The Evidence
Epilepsy is a serious neurological condition that can affect individuals of all ages. Treatment is far from perfect, and roughly 30% of patients can experience seizures that are resistant to antiseizure medications. Interestingly, the cannabis plant, specifically the phytocannabinoids, cannabidiol and delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, has been shown to possess anticonvulsant properties and are effective in the treatment of seizures | British Journal of Hospital Medicine, UK
Cannabis 'helps me massively' : More people in Wales using the drug under private prescription
Cannabis, a classified B drug in the UK, remains the focus of significant police time and resource. However, there are growing calls for laws around its use to be updated, with some arguing it should be legalised completely. At a cannabis lounge in Newport there is a key distinction- everyone using the drug on the premises holds a private medical prescription | ITV, UK
Press release - Trailblazing scheme to reconnect thousands with HIV treatment
The government has launched a scheme which will see thousands of people benefit from improved HIV testing and treatment under a new action plan | DHSC et al, UK
Lung Disease Hits Harder Than You Think
Around 1.2 million people in the UK have been diagnosed with COPD, but many more are believed to be living with the condition undiagnosed (ASH, 2020). While most people are diagnosed with it in their 50s, early intervention is key to slowing the progression | Smokefree Sheffield, UK
Independent retailers call for age-verification technology in vapes
The technology would prevent vapes from working until the user proves they are aged 18 or over | Better Retailing, UK
'Significant drop' in smoking rates
The percentage of people that smoke in Oxfordshire fell to 7.5% in 2024, according to the latest figures. Officials described it as a "statistically significant drop" since 2020 - when smoking prevalence in the county was at 12.1% | BBC, UK
Young People: Drugs
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of exposure to online drug marketing on teenage drug use in West Dorset | They work for you, UK
Low Alcohol Drinks: Children
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the answer of 28 July 2025, to Question 66478, on Innovation: Beer and Public Houses, on what evidential basis no- and low-alcohol drinks can cause harm to 16 and 17 year olds | They work for you, UK
Driving under Influence: Sentencing
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of utilising alcohol interlock technology as part of judicial sentencing criteria | They work for you, UK
Driving Under Influence: Scotland
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the answer of 16 October 2025, to Question 77642, on Driving under Influence: Scotland, whether research has been commissioned or produced on the effect of drink driving limits on the economic viability of pubs and other hospitality venues which serve alcohol | They work for you, UK
More than 9,000 cannabis plants worth £9.5m found
Police who found a crop of 9,000 cannabis plants with an estimated street value of £9.5m have described it as a "central supply factory" to other cannabis farms in Birmingham | BBC, UK
How drunken error saw drug boss brought to justice
When police arrived to deal with an inebriated middle-aged man found collapsed on the floor this June they initially had no idea who they were dealing with | BBC, UK
International news
Drinking is a way of life in Ireland. Can a warning label change that?
Jack likes a drink and a standard night out will probably involve several pints at his local."If you have three pints, that is easy, easy going," the 29-year-old says. "Probably a heavy night, casually, would be like six-plus pints." Jack grew up in County Galway where, he says, young people often start drinking at 14 or 15, "usually in a field with a horrendous can of cider" | BBC, UK
Can you have a community without craic? Scholars of Ireland’s pubs warn of declining numbers
Two new books analyse what makes the ‘perfect pub’ and both come to a sobering conclusion: Irish pubs are in trouble | Guardian, UK
Brain damage, blindness and death: the global trail of trauma left by methanol-laced alcohol
Methanol, a cheap relative of ethanol, is entering the supply chain, causing thousands of deaths around the world | Guardian, UK
Colombia’s cocaine trade booming despite Trump crackdown
President Trump has also imposed heavy financial sanctions on Colombia, the world’s biggest cocaine producing country, while the Colombian president has declared the only way to tackle the drugs trade is to “capture the bosses of the business”. Our Latin America correspondent Guillermo Galdos has been investigating how the illicit trafficking works, from the port of Buenaventura, which handles over 60 per cent of Colombia’s cocaine exports | Channel 4, UK
Trump says he will pardon ex-Honduras president convicted of drug trafficking
Donald Trump has said that he will pardon the former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted of drug trafficking charges in a US court last year | BBC, UK
Pete Hegseth denies he gave orders to ‘kill everybody’ on alleged ‘narco-boat’
Defense secretary called reports about his role in strike as ‘fake news’ intended to discredit US military | Guardian, UK
The Wiggles don’t condone drugs, spokesperson says after controversial TikTok video set to Ecstasy song
Blue Wiggle Anthony Field and ‘Tree of Wisdom’ appeared in now-deleted video from singer Keli Holiday | Guardian, UK
Singapore executes three men for drug offences over two days
Singapore hanged three people for drug offences last week, bringing the total number of executions to 17 this year - the highest since 2003 | BBC, UK
EUDA webinar: Care without conditions — housing-first and employment-first approaches
3 Dec 2025. Online. This webinar brings representatives from three inspirational European programmes to share how they deliver reintegration on people’s own terms, focusing on dignity, health, safety and opportunity rather than on abstinence | EUDA, Portugal
Smoke-Free Youth, Stalled Adults: From 30 Years of Progress to the Next Frontier in Tobacco Policy
Over the past 30 years, cigarette smoking among high school–aged youth in the United States has fallen to historic lows. In the early 1990s, more than one in four high school students smoked, and cigarettes were still widely marketed and socially accepted. Since then, policy interventions, public health campaigns, and regulatory action have driven shifts in social norms and a dramatic reversal of once-common behavior | R Street, USA
Steep rise in alcohol-related liver disease contributing to 'deaths of despair' phenomenon, study warns
A striking rise in deaths from alcohol-related liver disease (ALD) is disproportionately impacting people without a college degree, flagging the heightened risk facing economically disadvantaged groups. That said, almost all demographic groups, including those with a college degree, are experiencing increased ALD death rates, according to an analysis in Alcohol: Clinical & Experimental Research | Medical Xpress, USA
Autonomy and intrinsic sense of control linked to drinking behaviors and alcohol consequences
Individuals' autonomy and sense of control are associated with the quantity and frequency of their alcohol consumption and its consequences, according to a new study examining latent self-determined motivational profiles underlying drinking behaviors | Medical Xpress, USA
Medetomidine (meh-deh-toe-mi-deen) found in crystal / powder expected to contain bromazolam
Medetomidine is a non-opioid sedative used as a veterinary drug. It is very potent - consuming even a small amount can result in heavy sedation. The sample was acquired in Victoria in the last week | VAADA, Australia
Blogs, comment and opinion
Is Long-Term Residential Rehab Back? The 2025 UK Guidelines Give It the Green Light
For years, many commissioners, politicians and even some clinicians treated long-term residential rehab as an expensive luxury - something that belonged to the 1980s Minnesota Model era rather than a modern, “community-first” system. The new Clinical Guidelines for Alcohol Treatment, published on 28 November 2025, have just changed the conversation | EMCAT, UK
The Thistle Recovery Debate: When Ideology Dresses Up as Compassion
Every so often, a story lands in my lap that reminds me why satire has retired. Scotland’s drug policy keeps beating it to the punch. The latest example is the ongoing debate about the Thistle Centre and its push for an inhalation room | Annemarie Ward, UK
Expert reaction to meta-analysis on the use of nitrous oxide for treatment of depression, as published in eBioMedicine
Discussing the study, Prof Hamish McAllister-Williams, Professor of Affective Disorders, Newcastle University and Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust, said... | Science Media Centre, UK
The truth about hitmen Britain’s gangland killers are incompetent
Like sharks and Nazis, gangsters who kill other gangsters are a reliable source of fascination for the British public. When a gangland hit makes the news, it opens a window onto a high-stakes world of extreme characters and cold-blooded violence. The execution of the Essex Boys — three drug-dealing gangsters blasted to death in a Range Rover, down a farm track in 1995 — spawned a wave of “Essexploitation” movies and documentaries which are still being churned out three decades later | UnHerd, UK
When it comes to alcohol, gambling and domestic violence in Australia, it’s essential we connect the dots
What is happening behind closed doors in your street while the game is on, the grog is flowing and the bets are failing? | Guardian, UK
And finally...
Animals on drugs: How crocodiles on meth, beer-loving bears and cocaine hippos are wreaking wildlife havoc
From meth-fuelled gators in Florida to booze-bingeing bears in suburbs and cocaine-heritage hippos in Colombia, wildlife is behaving in some utterly bizarre ways thanks to human substances | Mail Online, UK