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Daily news - 6th October 2025

UK news

One in four UK people fear a loved one drinks too much, survey finds

Poll of 2,000 people appears to underline experts’ concerns of growing ‘epidemic’ of addiction to alcohol or drugs | Guardian, UK

More Covid 'lockdown babies' damaged by alcohol

Women drinking more alcohol than usual during Covid pandemic lockdowns has led to more children starting school this September with a disease caused by mothers drinking in pregnancy, a paediatric consultant fears | BBC, UK

Inside Britain’s Cocaine Crisis: Why More People Than Ever Are Using the Drug – and the Deadly Cost

One writer who’s seen the tragic consequences of Britain’s sesh culture first-hand asks: why aren’t we talking about it? | Men's Health, UK

Cocaine carnage is coming to Britain: Budget blow has exploded beyond control

Unwitting beachgoers described the scene as “something out of a movie”. A motorised dinghy dramatically ran aground on the golden sands of a Cornish beach last September with police in hot pursuit. Three men made a stumbling attempt to scarper into the dunes before they were collared by officers, who had observed the gang dumping 20 water-tight bales of what they suspected to be cocaine into the Celtic Sea | New Statesman, UK

Green leader Zack Polanski backs legalisation of all drugs

The leader of the Green Party says he wants to legalise all drugs, calling for an approach "led by public health experts, not politicians". Speaking to BBC South East ahead of his party conference, Zack Polanski said he agreed with a Kent Green councillor, who earlier this year called for the legalisation of all drugs, including class A drugs like heroin and crack cocaine | BBC, UK

Shops pledge to stop selling super-strength booze

As part of its Reducing the Strength initiative, Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council is asking licence holders to stop selling beer, lager and cider above 6.5% alcohol strength. The move comes after a Stockton shop lost its licence due to selling cider to street drinkers in the early morning | BBC, UK

Developing a roadmap for tackling alcohol harm in the UK - podcast

On this month’s podcast we spoke to Dr Katherine Severi, IAS’s Chief Executive, and Karen Biggs, Chief Executive of treatment provider Phoenix Futures, about IAS’s forthcoming report: A healthier future: A long-term vision to tackle alcohol harm in the UK, due to be published in October | IAS, UK

Street Drug Discussions - Drug Use in Prisons - video

This video covers: The drug landscape in prisons, drug related deaths in prisons and drug treatment in prisons. Speakers are Prof Susanne MacGregor London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Dr Tim Kerr Kings College London, and Prof Adam Winstock University College London | Drug Science, UK

137. Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom with Dr Andy Letcher

In this episode we speak to Dr Andy Letcher, religious scholar and author of the book Shroom: the Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom. He explores his complimentary background in science and the humanities, depicting how this combination structured his thinking. Noting the religious potential of psychedelic experiences, Letcher links the spiritual with the psychedelic, explaining what he sought to capture in his book. Finally, he discusses how his interest in transdisciplinary perspectives on psychedelics has coalesced in the University of Exeter’s psychedelic postgraduate courses | Drug Science, UK

Inmates are having Mounjaro delivered to their cells using drones, says prison governor

At HMP Edinburgh flying delivery machines are regularly used to smuggle weapons, drugs and mobile phones into jails and now even weight loss jabs and tooth whitening strips | Independent, UK

Operation Venetic: Crime group members sentenced in relation to North East England cocaine plots

A group of criminals from the North East who oversaw the importation of large amounts of cocaine – including loads concealed in empty gas cannisters – have been sentenced to a total of more than 141 years’ imprisonment | NCA, UK

Four charged after man's cocaine death in Dubai

Jensen Westhead, 20, died in Dubai on 4 December 2024, the day after flying out from Manchester Airport. Mr Westhead is reported to have swallowed "a number of packages of cocaine" at a hotel in Manchester on 2 December | BBC, UK

Driver took cocaine the day before fatal A7 crash

A company director had taken cocaine the day before a three-car crash in which a woman died, a court has heard | BBC, UK

International news

Alcohol minimum pricing policies, including minimum unit pricing (MUP), are effective strategies for reducing alcohol consumption and related harm. However, their equity implications remain underexplored. We conducted a rapid review of PubMed and Web of Science, identifying 37 real-world studies assessing the impacts of alcohol minimum pricing | IJDP, UK

Air Canada is now serving free beer, wine and snacks to economy passengers on every flight

Previously, the Montreal-based carrier only served free alcohol and food to economy passengers on long-haul flights | Indepedent, UK

'They're not just sharing needles, they're sharing blood': How HIV cases soared in Fiji

Ten: that's the age of the youngest person with HIV that Sesenieli Naitala has ever met. When she first started Fiji's Survivor Advocacy Network in 2013, that young boy was yet to be born. Now he is one of thousands of Fijians to have contracted the bloodborne virus in recent years – many of them aged 19 or younger, and many of them through intravenous drug use | BBC, UK

‘I use cannabis as medicine’: the US basketball player facing execution in Indonesia over $400 of gummies

Unlike his fellow basketball player Brittney Griner, Jarred Shaw has received scant attention after being arrested for a drugs offence overseas | Guardian, UK

Four killed in latest US strike on alleged drug vessel near Venezuela

US forces have killed four people in an attack on a boat off the coast of Venezuela that was allegedly trafficking drugs, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth says | BBC, UK

Drug-related accidental injury deaths climb nearly 60% in 5 years across the US

An increasing number of people are dying from drug-related accidental injuries. The rate has risen by nearly 60% within the last five years, according to new study findings | Medical Xpress, USA

Over 40% of deceased drivers in motor vehicle crashes test positive for THC, study shows

New study findings show that over 40% of drivers who died in motor vehicle collisions tested positive for active delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in their system, with average blood levels far exceeding those considered to cause impairment. The research highlights a significant and persistent public health risk that is unchanged by the legalization of recreational cannabis, the authors said | Medical Xpress, USA

Support for Alcohol Control Policies Among US Alcohol Consumers

In this survey study of 1036 US adults who consume alcohol, approximately one-half supported—and few opposed—policies to restrict alcohol advertising to children and to require calorie content information, drinks per container information, and cancer warnings on alcohol containers. Fewer adults supported policies to lower the blood alcohol content limit for driving, increase alcohol taxes, or limit the times or places alcohol can be sold | JAMA Network Open, USA

Diabetes drugs show promise for treatment of alcohol use disorder

Researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in the U.S. recently performed a large-scale analysis of genetic data, aimed at further exploring the potential of these hormones as therapeutic tools to limit excessive drinking and improve liver health | Medical Xpress, USA

Look Behind the Headlines About Rising Vape-Related ER Visits

This summer, the Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center published a report showing what appears to be a shocking trend: Emergency department (ED or ER) visits linked to vaping have risen sharply | Filter Magazine, USA

Mindfulness meditation aims to foster a ‘detached observer’ relationship to one’s feelings (such as cravings for drugs), dissociating these from the need to act on them. In respect of substance use problems it has a patchy record, one which gets patchier still with these negative findings from a rigorous test of a brief online programme | DAD, USA

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