Home | Archive | Weekly | Reports
Daily news - 24th October 2025 |
 |
UK news
New research partnerships to support drugs and alcohol charities
Two charities specialising in support for people affected by substance use will collaborate with University of Essex academics in a bid to improve outcomes and services for clients. Professor Susan McPherson and Dr Katie Peterson, of the Institute for Public Health and Wellbeing, are working with Essex Recovery Foundation and Open Road to support their capacity to collect and report on data | University of Essex, UK
Raising a Public Health Concern: Women Overlooked in UK Drug Policy and Disadvantaged in Mixed-Gender Community Services
[Open access] The British From Harm to Hope drugs strategy seems limited in gender responsiveness. Evidence is presented from a West Midlands case study where a qualitative participatory methodology with thematic analysis was employed. The project was co-designed by academics, women with lived-experience and third-sector research leaders | IJERPH, UK
Voice of the Voiceless
Rights and responsibilities for people who receive opioid substitution prescriptions (scripts) and the pharmacists and pharmacy staff who dispense them. In this co-produced booklet we highlight the good and bad experiences people who receive opioid substitution prescriptions have with pharmacists – however, we hope that in the future this work will make bad experiences much less likely | University of Bristol, UK
Killer Tactics 2 (PDF)
How the tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy food and drink industries have used their killer tactics to undermine important public health policies since Labour have been in power | ASH, AHA, OHA, UK
Drug deaths (No. 2) - EDM (Early Day Motion)2106: tabled on 21 October 2025
Motion text - That this House is dismayed at annual data released by the Office for National Statistics on 17 October 2025 revealing yet another record number of drug deaths; notes that 5,565 deaths related to drug poisoning were registered in England and Wales in 2024; further notes that opiates and opioids were involved in almost half of these; recognises that recent research from King's College London has shown that many opioid-related deaths are missed from official statistics, raising concerns that underestimation has led to underfunding; is alarmed that deaths related to the synthetic opioid Nitazenes are four times higher than in the previous year... | UK Parliament, UK
Tony Adams launches National Addiction Awareness Week: 23rd – 30th November 2025
The fifth annual Addiction Awareness Week will this year take place between 23rd – 30th November 2025. This year, the UK’s leading addiction campaign Taking Action On Addiction, led by the Forward Trust, is on a mission to Get The Nation Talking About Addiction | DDN, UK
What works for treating cannabis use disorder with Monika Halicka - audio
In this episode, Dr Chloe Burke talks to Dr Monika Halicka, a Senior Research Associate at the Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, UK. The interview covers a systematic review and meta-analysis on the effectiveness and safety of psychosocial interventions for cannabis use disorder | SSA, UK
Drugs Policy Division and Alcohol Harm Prevention Team staff numbers: FOI release
Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 | Scottish Government, UK
Plans to 'name and shame' people on community service savaged in letter to David Lammy
Plans to name and shame people on Community Payback schemes could do 'severe and long-lasting damage' to children with parents in the criminal justice system, experts warn today | Mirror, UK
Complaint not upheld against House Party IPA
The complaint, made by Zenith Global Commercial Ltd, as part of the Portman Group’s independent proactive audit of the UK market[1], raised concerns under Code Rule 3.2(h), whereby a drink, its packaging and any promotional material or activity should not in any direct or indirect way have a particular appeal to under-18s | Portman Group, UK
Long jail terms 'the harsh reality of drug crime'
Lengthy prison sentences handed down to members of an organised crime gang who plotted to bring a large amount of cocaine to the Isle of Man shows the "harsh reality of being caught", police have said | BBC, UK
Man jailed over 'biggest ever' £17m ketamine haul
A Liverpool man caught with £17m of ketamine, a seizure of the drug described by police as the "one of the largest ever in the UK", has been jailed | BBC, UK
International news
From monkey elixir to fentanyl: Tyler Skaggs’s death is merely a chapter in baseball’s 136-year drug fix
As the LA Angels stand trial over the pitcher’s death in the quiet shadow of the World Series fanfare across town, a sport confronts a truth practically as old as the game itself | Guardian, UK
Stakeholder consultations to inform the development of a successor national drug strategy: Summary of key findings (PDF)
To inform the development of a successor to the national drugs strategy, the Department of Health convened a series of targeted in-person consultations with key stakeholders. The intention of these consultations was to complement the recommendations of the Citizens Assembly on Drugs Use and the separate independent evaluation of the existing national drugs strategy | DOH, Ireland
Parental opioid prescriptions and the risk of opioid use in adolescents and young adults: The HUNT Study linked with prescription registry data
[Open access] Although opioids are usually not recommended for young people they are often prescribed. It is not clear whether family-level factors are related to the risk of opioid use among adolescents and young adults. The aim of this study is to examine the association between parental opioid prescriptions and risk of opioid use in young people | PLOS Medicine, USA
Teenagers and Young Adults Who Use Cannabis Have a Higher Risk of Progressing to Regular Tobacco Use
Teens and young adults who use cannabis are more likely to become regular tobacco users — even if they haven’t previously tried tobacco — compared to similar people who do not use cannabis, suggests a new study led by researchers at University of California San Diego and published online in the journal Tobacco Control. Around 13% of new onset tobacco use was estimated to be attributable to cannabis, the study found | UC San Diego, USA
Toxic compounds from heated e-cigarette fluids can damage lung cells
A study by University of California, Riverside, scientists has found that two toxic chemicals can form when the main ingredient in most e-cigarette fluids is heated, and that these compounds can harm human lung cells | News Medical, USA
Heated Tobacco Product Spread and Hospitalizations for Acute Coronary Syndrome in Japan
Heated tobacco products (HTPs) have gained traction as alternatives to conventional cigarettes, particularly among young adults in Japan. Although HTP use may be associated with a reduction in exposure biomarkers for cardiovascular disease compared with conventional cigarettes, little is known about whether HTP use is associated with cardiovascular events. Although previously shown to have no association with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) hospitalizations during the 3 years after HTP introduction in Japan, we explored whether an association exists since HTP use has expanded | JAMA Network Open, USA
ChatGPT can provide trustworthy information for pregnant women seeking advice on opioid use disorder
When trained correctly on medically accurate information, ChatGPT can provide trustworthy information for pregnant women seeking medical advice for treating opioid use disorder, according to new research in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, based at Rutgers University | News Medical, USA
Blogs, comment and opinion
AFS Response to PHS Decline in Treatment Report
Laura Mahon, Deputy CEO of Alcohol Focus Scotland, said: “This report confirms that the 40% decline in alcohol treatment over 10 years is real, but does not represent a decline in demand. It serves to add to a picture of a wholly inadequate systemic response to Scotland’s alcohol emergency... | Alcohol Focus Scotland, UK
Anyone’s Child: Bridging The Political Divide
At Anyone’s Child, we work to engage politicians from across the political spectrum, encouraging cooperation in our pursuit of more humane, effective, and evidence-led drug policy. No matter what party we support, we can all agree that we want to get drugs under control and protect young people | Anyone's Child blog, UK
Matt Morgan: The NHS 10 year plan—expertly written by experts in writing expert plans
The NHS doesn’t need another 10 year plan. It needs a plan for next Tuesday. The real options for fixing it are actually brutally simple: more taxation, more rationing, more collaboration with the private sector—or all three. The Danes tax heavily. The French ration overtly. The Australians collaborate with honesty. The British pretend to do none of these, yet we tax without equity, ration without honesty, and collaborate without transparency | BMJ Opinion, UK
Why do some people get bad ‘hangxiety’ after a night of drinking and others don’t?
You wake up after a night out. Your head’s pounding and a wave of unease hits before you’ve even looked at your phone. Restlessness, self-doubt and flashes of regret creep in as last night’s conversations start to replay | Conversation, Australia