Home | Archive | Weekly | Reports
Daily news - 2nd June 2025 |
 |
UK news
Disposable vape ban begins - but will it have an impact?
The ban on the sale of single-use disposable vapes will come into force on Sunday across the UK, aimed at protecting children's health and the environment | BBC, UK
Public Health Scotland welcomes ban on disposable vapes
Public Health Scotland (PHS) welcomes the latest steps to create a smokefree generation with the ban on the sale and supply of single-use vapes in Scotland, which comes into effect on 1 June 2025. The ban has been agreed by all governments in the UK in response to the 4 Nations Creating a smokefree generation and tackling youth vaping consultation, which ran across Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland in 2024. In Scotland, the consultation was taken forward using powers under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 | PHS, UK
Public support for a smokefree society (PDF)
As the Tobacco and Vapes Bill nears the end of its journey through Parliament, new data on public attitudes in England reveal widespread support for further Government action to deliver a smokefree society | ASH, UK
APCC leads respond to London Drugs Commission report
“While we recognise that this is an issue where some PCCs may take different views, as the APCC’s Addictions and Substance Misuse leads, we disagree with the Commission’s recommendation that possessing a small amount of cannabis should be decriminalised. We will now be consulting further with our PCC colleagues to discuss and develop our approach... | APPC, UK
PCC supports calls to reclassify cannabis
Police forces in the west and south west of England have been cracking down on people using recreational drugs, with Dorset PCC David Sidwick this week reiterating calls for cannabis to be upgraded | BBC, UK
Worried about weed: should London follow New York and decriminalise cannabis?
Almost 25 years after an experiment was ditched to caution rather than arrest those carrying small amounts of the drug, a rethink is on the cards – but the British government remains cautious | Guardian, UK
Fentanyl: Drug Seizures
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much Fentanyl by (a) volume and (b) value has been seized in the UK in the last 12 months | They work for you, UK
'Ultra-running helped me find sobriety'
A long-distance runner said the sport has given her a better life after she struggled with binge drinking and her mental health | BBC, UK
Publishing qualitative research in addiction with Jo Neale and Brian Kelly - audio
In this episode, Dr Elle Wadsworth speaks to Professor Joanne Neale from the Addictions Department at King’s College London and Professor Brian Kelly from the Department of Sociology at Indiana University. The interview covers their editorial titled, ‘Over a decade later and Addiction journal is still committed to publishing qualitative research’ | SSA, UK
An introduction to England’s alcohol treatment system - audio
In our latest podcast Dr Will Haydock, Executive Director of Collective Voice, sheds light on alcohol treatment services in England. Representing an alliance of charities supporting people with alcohol and other drug issues, Haydock emphasises that free treatment is available in every local area – yet awareness remains low. He discusses barriers like stigma and the misperception that support is costly or inaccessible. Haydock calls for a whole-system approach, integrating alcohol treatment into broader health and social care. He also discusses how the Health and Care Act 2012 and the 2021 Drug Strategy changed the treatment system | IAS, UK
Will London decriminalise cannabis? - audio
As the Mayor of London urges the government to consider decriminalising possession of small amounts of cannabis, Steve Rolles, a senior policy analyst for Transform Drugs Policy Foundation, unpacks the findings of the London Drugs Commission | The Standard, UK
Welfare reforms will lead to rise in homelessness, charities warn Government
Charities have urged a rethink by Government on the proposed welfare reforms | Standard, UK
Islanders welcome end of alcohol deals restriction
The Licensing Assembly removed restrictions on drinks promotions in venues on Thursday evening after it said the ban had led to increased at home drinking and binge drinking | BBC, UK
Pen y Fan Recovery Walk 2025
We are delighted to announce that the annual national recovery walk is back for 2025. The event will be taking place on Thursday 10th July at Pen Y Fan, within the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) National Park. The meeting point and time for this year’s recovery walk is Pont ar Daf car park (LD3 8NL) at 10.00am. There will be a short briefing at 10.15am with the aim of starting the walk at 10.30am. The route will be marshalled to ensure everyone stays on the right track, as well as providing assistance if required | Barod, UK
The Forward Trust Celebrates Pride Month 2025: Honouring Activism and Social Change
The Forward Trust is proud to stand with LGBTQ+ communities this June to celebrate Pride Month 2025, aligning with the UK’s official theme: Activism and Social Change | Forward Trust, UK
Royal Navy warship seizes £30m of drugs
HMS Lancaster, which is based in Portsmouth when not on active service, seized the one and a half tonne load of narcotics while at sea in the Middle East | BBC, UK
International news
How Acerbi beat cancer, alcohol abuse and depression to star for Inter
Francesco Acerbi's story really has all it takes to be a fable. It starts from afar, has an animal with human characteristics as its protagonist - in this case a lion - with its vices and virtues. And like any fable worthy of its name, it ends with a moral | BBC, UK
The country that made smoking sexy is breaking up with cigarettes
After glamorizing tobacco for decades, France is preparing for its most sweeping smoking ban yet | Independent, UK
Tory peer proposed delay on heated tobacco ban after Philip Morris visit
Industry giant paid for Lord Vaizey’s trip to Switzerland before he tabled amendment to tobacco and vapes bill | Guardian, UK
British woman accused of drug offences tells BBC of Sri Lanka jail conditions
Charlotte May Lee, 21, from south London, was arrested earlier this month after authorities allegedly found 46kg of cannabis in her suitcases when she arrived on a flight from Thailand | BBC, UK
Elon Musk allegedly took large amounts of drugs including ketamine while advising Trump – report
Doge head at times took dissociative daily, along with ecstasy and psychedelic mushroom use, according to NYT | Guardian, UK
HSE issues drug trend update ahead of festival season
Ahead of the main events starting for the summer, the HSE is warning people to be aware that there are new types of drugs now in Ireland that pose significantly higher risks. New types of ketamine*, known as ketamine analogues or designer drugs are appearing in Ireland, and are a cause of concern | HSE, Ireland
Labelling the debate: a thematic analysis of alcohol industry submissions to the EU consultation on alcohol health warnings in Ireland
Building on the success of tobacco health warning labels, EU Member States and institutions are increasingly considering similar requirements for alcohol products. While industry responses to pricing and availability policies have been widely studied, their framing of Alcohol Health Warning Labels (AHWLs) as a policy solution remains comparatively underexplored. This paper examines how alcohol industry stakeholders responded to the EU notification process for Ireland’s proposed alcohol labelling regulations, introduced under Ireland’s Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018 | BMC Globalization & Health, USA
One-stop shopping for recovery? A systematic review of the evidence on U.S. recovery community centers
They have proliferated in the USA and become a feature too in the UK, but research evaluating peer-staffed, ‘shopfront’ recovery support resource centres is scarce. Offering holistic support for recovery, welfare and reintegration with no preconditions on what kind of treatment is acceptable, they “serve as distinct, visible community access point for individuals with high psychopathology and low recovery capital” | JSAT, USA
Opioid overdose crisis: Medications prevent subsequent overdoses
Drug overdose is the number one cause of accidental death in Connecticut, where someone is more likely to die from a drug overdose than from a car accident | Medical Xpress, USA
Brain network activity may offer clues to future drinking behaviors of adolescents
Measuring the interaction of brain networks could potentially help identify teens at risk for dangerous drinking, according to a novel study that explored how brain signals relate to future drinking behavior. Alcohol use commonly starts and escalates during adolescence, which is a key period for brain development. Drinking can alter brain development in ways that increase the risk of alcohol use disorder (AUD) | Medical Xpress, USA
World Vape Day Follows Tumultuous Year in Tobacco Harm Reduction
The urgency of raising awareness on World Vape Day—May 30—has increased since I wrote about it in 2024. The time when it was simply a day of celebration for people who had quit smoking is long gone. The past year has heightened the need to combat rampant misinformation and the spread of policies that favor deadly cigarettes over safer alternatives | Filter Magazine, USA
Blogs, comment and opinion
The Guardian view on alcohol and public health: the drinks industry must not control the narrative
Politicians who are serious about public health can’t ignore the rising toll of illness and death linked to drinking | Guardian opinion, UK
The complexity of stigma demands nuanced debate
Morris et al. (Citation2024) respond to recent claims that societal disapproval may help reduce ‘substance use and addiction’ (SUA) (Vanyukov Citation2023a, Citation2023b) by approaching the issue as an empirical question: specifically, to what extent ‘disapproval’ in real-world settings risks manifesting as stigmatization. In response, Vanyukov and Kirisci (Citation2024) reject this cautionary position, arguing instead for disapproval toward SUA to become a normative ‘consensus’ | Addiction Theory and Research, UK
My cultural awakening: A Timothée Chalamet drama made me leave my partner – and check him into rehab
It took a viewing of the 2018 film Beautiful Boy, about a father and his addict son, for me to see that my relationship had become damagingly codependent | Guardian, UK
An end to decades of government hypocrisy on prisons is in sight – if Labour can seize the chance
The Gauke review calls out how governments have cut prison budgets while ramping up the number of prisoners. Labour has a chance to make a decisive change, writes former drug czar Mike Trace | Big Issue opinion, UK
Hungary’s New Drug Policy: Zero-Tolerance and Hate Campaigns
The Hungarian government, in power for the past 15 years, has consistently scapegoated its issues onto marginalised groups, launching incessant hate campaigns against them. Over the years, the targets have included migrants, LGBTQ+ individuals, George Soros, and the “Brussels bureaucrats.” | Talking Drugs, UK