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Daily news - 15th December 2025

UK news

Better Outcomes through Linked Data: Rough sleeping and substance use treatment

This report focuses on people with experiences of homelessness and rough sleeping who reported having received treatment for substance misuse in England. A linked dataset was created by matching NDTMS (National Drug Treatment Monitoring System) data to the RSQ (Rough Sleeping Questionnaire) data collection, using personal identifiers within the NDTMS and RSQ records. The aim was to assess the relationship between substance misuse treatment outcomes and participants’ history of homelessness and rough sleeping, and the role of the services | Ministry of Housing, Communities &
Local Government, UK

University secures NIHR award to map and evaluate Lived Experience Recovery Organisations

The University has been awarded £1.46 million by the NIHR to lead a landmark study exploring the role and impact of Lived Experience Recovery Organisations | University of Birmingham, UK

New Year 2025/26 Quit Smoking

A suite of social media and digital screen assets to encourage and support people to make a quit smoking attempt this New Year and beyond | DHSC, UK

Plea after girl, 13, died copying social media trend

The mother of a girl who died while copying a "horrible" social media trend is calling for children to be taught about the dangers of solvent abuse | BBC, UK

Statistics from the Northern Ireland Substance misuse database: 2024/25

The report summarises information on people presenting to services with problem drug and/ or alcohol misuse and relates to the 12-month period ending 31 March 2025. In Northern Ireland in 2024/25, a total of 3,889 clients were recorded on the Substance Misuse Database as having presented to services for problem substance misuse | DoH, UK

Club's campaign to tackle vaping among youngsters

Bradford City FC Community Foundation has teamed up with Bradford Council for what is known as the Catch Your Breath initiative | BBC, UK

'I lost everything' and now I try to help others

A man who "lost everything" has opened up about his struggles with issues like drink and drugs in a bid to help others who might be facing similar problems | BBC, UK

Aberdeen fans allowed to buy alcohol at Premiership match

Aberdeen fans have been allowed to buy alcohol at Pittodrie Stadium - the first trial of its kind at a Scottish Premiership match since a ban was introduced 44 years ago | BBC, UK

Medicinal cannabis company to create 100 jobs in Scottish expansion

Breathe Life Sciences (BLS) will create 36 jobs when the production and distribution centre opens towards the end of next year - with a three year plan for the workforce to increase to around 100 | BBC, UK

Psychologists endorse new alcohol clinical guidelines

The new UK clinical guidelines recommend interventions for people with harmful patterns of drinking and alcohol dependence | BPS, UK

Continuing Care: Prisoners' Release

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve continuity of care for people with drug treatment needs on release from prison, including ensuring effective links between prison and community drug treatment services | They work for you, UK

Operation Venetic: Crime group member admits role in North East England cocaine plot

A man who was extradited to the UK to face drugs charges has admitted his part in the importation of large amounts of cocaine including loads hidden in empty gas cannisters | NCA, UK

 

International news

Psychedelic treatments show promise for OCD while cannabis doesn’t, review finds

Psychiatry professor theorizes that the difference is related to how the substances interact with areas of the brain | Guardian, UK

‘The attrition is setting in’: how Oregon’s magic mushroom experiment lost its way

Five years after legalizing psilocybin to treat a raft of health problems, practitioners worry the industry has become too costly, too white, and too regulated. Can the landmark program find its footing? | Guardian, UK

Non-alcoholic drinks attract a lot less tax in Australia. So why are they often just as expensive?

While production costs may be higher for non-alcoholic drinks, economists say larger manufacturers are also using ‘price anchoring’ to maintain higher margins | Guardian, UK

Psychedelic species under threat: Are psychoactive plants and toads facing a conservation crisis ?

Research into psychoactive substances is increasing, and day by day more medicinal uses for these drugs are being discovered. Alongside this, more people are trying psychedelics for the first time and attending psychedelic retreats. Whilst this surge in interest is advancing research and creating patient benefits, it is also raising concerns over the conservation status of many plants, fungi, and animals that produce psychedelic substances | Drug Science, UK

One Pill Doesn’t Mean One Dose

The HSE is urging people to be aware of significant changes in the MDMA market as we enter the busy Christmas and New Year period. HSE drug-checking, the only service in Ireland analysing substances submitted for harm-reduction purposes, has confirmed MDMA products ranging from 0mg to over 300mg this year, showing how unpredictable the market has become | Drugs.ie, Ireland [Audio clip here]

Cuan Dara celebrates thirty years with enhanced inpatient facility

The Minister of State with responsibility for Public Health, Wellbeing and the National Drugs Strategy, Jennifer Murnane O’Connor TD, officially opened the new purpose-built Cuan Dara centre in Palmerstown, Dublin. This modern medical inpatient centre replaces Cuan Dara’s previous 12-bed facility in Cherry Orchard Hospital and provides the ability to expand residential, recovery-focused care for people with complex addiction needs, including those with dual diagnosis, pregnancy-related needs or other medical conditions | HSE, Ireland

Revealed: 27% more drug-driving offences in first nine months of 2025 than all of last year

New data reveals that 28,206 people have appeared in courts on drink- or drug-driving charges in five years | Irish Examiner, Ireland

Final statement by Alexis Goosdeel, Executive Director of the EUDA at the end of his 10-year mandate

When I began my mandate in 2016, heroin was still the main problem drug, and we were detecting around two new psychoactive substances (NPS) every week. While innovation in synthetic chemistry was already accelerating, the situation today is radically different | EUDA, Portugal

Dublin’s supervised injecting facility: An assessment of its impact on discarded needles

Medically Supervised Injecting Facilities (MSIFs) are locations where illicit drugs can be injected using sterile equipment under professional supervision. They aim to reduce risks associated with public injecting and injecting alone. Evidence shows that MSIFs reduce overdoses, public injecting and related litter, and increase service engagement. Ireland’s first MSIF opened in December 2024. The study assesses its impact during its first four months | IJDP, USA

Does Believing Alcohol Causes Cancer Moderate the Relationship Between Consumer Awareness of the Alcohol–Cancer Link and Support for Alcohol Policies? Findings From a Canadian Cross-Sectional Study

[Open access] Extending research observing an association between awareness that alcohol causes cancer and support for alcohol policies, this study examined if believing or accepting alcohol causes cancer moderates the relationship between awareness of alcohol as a carcinogen and policy support | DAR, USA

Integrating methadone treatment into primary care increases guideline-concordant care

Integrating methadone treatment into primary care settings improves adherence to guideline-concordant health care for opioid use disorder (OUD), according to a study published online Dec. 9 in the Annals of Internal Medicine | Medical Xpress, USA

E-cigarette use is linked to higher heart attack risk, especially in former smokers

A large meta-analysis suggests that vaping is not cardiovascularly neutral, with elevated heart attack risk concentrated among people who previously smoked, raising questions about e-cigarettes as harm-reduction tools | News Medical, USA

AI can help primary care clinics spot risky drinking habits

On any given day in a busy primary care clinic, doctors and others often ask patients about their alcohol use, and try to gauge if it falls into healthy or problematic range. Patients might even complete an alcohol use questionnaire on a clipboard or their smartphone while they wait for their appointment. But a new study suggests that artificial intelligence might help increase the chance that people with risky drinking patterns or signs of alcohol use disorder (AUD) will get the outreach and help they need | Medical Xpress, USA

Cannabis use not a barrier to quitting nicotine vaping, clinical trial finds

Adolescent and young adult nicotine vaping has become an urgent public health concern, as 2024 marked the first year that nicotine vaping was the most initiated drug. Though vaping is the most common way young people use nicotine, few treatments exist to help those trying to quit. What's more, a 2022 Drug Alcohol Dependence study reported that around half of young people who vape nicotine also use cannabis, though the impact of this dual substance use on treatment outcomes remains unclear | Medical Xpress, USA

Legal Marijuana Access Linked to Fewer Suicides Among Older Adults

States that opened adult-use marijuana dispensaries saw suicide rates decline among older adults, according to a new scientific analysis of more than two decades of nationwide data. Correlating state legalization to the decline, the researchers note a “modest yet statistically significant reduction” in states with legal access to cannabis | Filter Magazine, USA

 

Blogs, comment and opinion

Gangs are menacing London’s schoolkids - The latest killing will not be the last

In London, it used to be that shrines for children would always mark the site of a road accident. Now they often mark the site of a murder. Most often, their killers are children too | Unherd, UK

Cigar lounges: what I learnt visiting London’s ‘cigar mile’

Stepping into one of the many establishments along London’s ‘cigar mile’, you would be forgiven for thinking that you had stepped back in time. To 2006 to be precise, before smokefree legislation came into force in the UK which banned smoking in indoor public places. There aren’t many who would go back to smoke filled pubs and restaurants but, for a particular clientele, a legal loophole allows just that | ASH blog, UK