Home | Archive | Weekly | Reports
Daily news - 22nd September 2025 |
 |
UK news
Inequality Landscape: Health and Socio-economic Inequality in Scotland
This is the second annual report from the Health Foundation funded Scottish Health Equity Research Unit (SHERU). This year we have split the report into two sections: Part 1 provides a stock-take of key data that capture health inequality trends and the underpinning socio-economic conditions that shape population health in Scotland. Part 2 offers a deep dive into deaths from drugs, alcohol and suicide and highlights young adult men experiencing socio-economic deprivation as a population group at high risk of these preventable deaths | Scottish Health Equity Research Unit (SHERU), UK
Call for plain packaging for vapes to reduce appeal to children
Experts say that using plain packaging could reduce the number of children who take up vaping while still being used by adults as a tool to quit smoking. But adults are still likely to buy e-cigarettes sold in plain packs, researchers found | ITV, UK
Spate of drugs deaths may be linked to crack cocaine 'laced with spice'
Officials believe the drug has been contaminated with synthetic cannabinoids, or spice, causing seizures and even death | STV, UK
The Women’s Treatment Working Group launches its Womanifesto
The Women’s Treatment Working Group is a group of women in leadership roles, working together to improve support for women affected by drug and alcohol use. We come from both specialist and mainstream services and are united in challenging inequality and enhancing services for women. We are committed to learning from lived and living experience, and aim to work alongside women to create change. Download the full report, or the executive summary | Collective Voice, UK
The truth about MDMA, ketamine and harm reduction - in conversation with Prof Fiona Measham - podcast
The latest episode of the Drug Education Forum monthly podcast series is now available. In this episode, we sit down with Prof Fiona Measham, Chair in Criminology at the University of Liverpool and founder of The Loop Fiona has decades of experience with research into MDMA, ketamine, and drug use at festivals. We dive deep into the realities of today’s drug markets, the challenges of drug education, and the life-saving role of drug checking services in the UK | DEF, UK
Watch our emotional National Reunion 2025 shares
Our awe-inspiring National Reunion event in 2025 provided a welcome opportunity for celebration across our recovery community. With consent, four of our incredible service users were happy to share their moving stories of how they found recovery with the help and support of The Forward Trust | The Forward Trust, UK
Children are getting their hands on nicotine pouches and fainting
Parents and carers are being informed about an 'increasingly popular' new nicotine product that children can legally buy in person and online - without proof of age | Manchester Evening News, UK
New documentary explores the rise of desi pubs
The West Midlands is home to many of the establishments, which combine a public house with Indian food and Punjabi music, and symbolise integration despite origins in segregation | BBC, UK
Podcast 136. Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology with Jenny Chapman and Dr Stephen Naulls
We talk to Jenny Chapman and Dr. Stephen Naulls, researchers at the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) and authors of ‘Psychedelic-assisted therapy for mental health: Policy considerations, a briefing for Parliament’ on the state of psychedelic research. They explore the remit of POST in highlighting objective, emerging scientific research, and how psychedelics have come into their focus | Drug Science, UK
The Middlesbrough pub training its staff to use life-saving treatment for opioid overdoses - video
The Longlands Club is working with a charity to administer Naloxone, as the North East has the highest number of drug overdose deaths in England and Wales | ITV, UK
Health board to pay almost £100k after unit flouted smoking policy
Hafan y Coed facility at Llandough hospital failed to comply with an enforcement notice issued by South Wales Fire and Rescue Service (SWFRS) after checks on patients smoking habits were not recorded | Wales Online, UK
Electronic Cigarettes: Synthetic Cannabinoids
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made an estimate of the number of people who have used Snapchat to purchase vape products spiked with the synthetic drug spice | They work for you, UK
Alcohol Occasional 4: Alcohol and LGBTQIA+ Communities
Mon, 6 Oct 2025 12:30 - 14:00 BST. Online. Join us online for the fourth and final seminar of the 2025 series, delivered by Beth Meadows and Kat Petrilli | SHAAP, UK
International news
South Africa police uncover $20m crystal meth lab
South African police say they have dismantled a crystal methamphetamine laboratory, with drugs worth $20m (£15m), discovered on a farm in the east of the country | BBC, UK
‘Insane journeys’: inside the narco-subs that cross oceans carrying hundreds of millions of pounds of cocaine
Poorly paid crews risk their lives on voyages in ‘propeller-driven coffins’ to smuggle drugs from Brazil to Europe | Guardian, UK
Chinese executive jailed for 25 years in US for trafficking fentanyl chemicals
Qingzhou Wang of Amarvel Biotech accused by prosecutors of turning chemical company into ‘pipeline of poison’ | Gurdian, UK
‘Chocolatier’ who sold cannabis-infused chocolate products made in his garden shed avoids jail
Jamie Ritchie, who ran 'The Sunshine Chocolate Factory', was handed a 20-month sentence yesterday, which was suspended for three years | Subday World, Ireland
Implementation of screening and assessment tools for diagnosing opioid use disorder: A systematic review
What research can tell us about how to systematically identify problem use of heroin and other opioid drugs in medical and prison settings | DAD, USA
Inhaling cannabis may greatly increase your risk of getting asthma
If you're looking to reduce your chances of developing lung disease, say experts at UC San Francisco, then it may be smart to avoid inhaling cannabis | Medical Xpress, USA
Study reveals why some medical cannabis patients use illegal products
Use of medical cannabis has been on the rise since it first became available to Utah patients in 2020. A medical cannabis card, which can be prescribed for difficult-to-treat conditions including PTSD and chronic pain, allows a patient to access licensed cannabis products in designated pharmacies | Medical Xpress, USA
GLP-1 receptor agonists may protect the liver during alcohol consumption
Anti-obesity drugs such as semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) are also promising for the treatment of alcohol use disorder and alcohol-associated liver disease, as growing evidence suggests they reduce the motivation to drink alcohol. Now, surprising new findings reveal that the medications may have direct protective effects on the liver as well | Medical Xpress, USA
Blogs, comment and opinion
Britain is not yet an opioid nation but rising drug deaths demand a new approach
Policymakers are alert to the growing menace of opioids, if not to the most effective solutions | Observer, UK
Estonia’s opioid crisis is heading for Britain Nitazenes are far deadlier than fentanyl
Four or five times a day, in a quiet suburb of Tallinn, Rasmus mixes a powder with water, carefully fills his syringe with it, and scours his body for a vein. The substance comes in various colours depending on the batch, and he often has to add ascorbic acid to the mix to make sure it combines well with the water and remains a stable solution, something he never had to do with fentanyl | UnHerd, UK
New website tracks how Pennsylvania’s $2.2B in opioid settlement funds is being spent
Pennsylvania is due to receive US$2.2 billion dollars from the national opioid settlements, and a new database shows the public where that money is going. Starting in 2021, a national, bipartisan coalition of attorneys general, including now-Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, reached settlements with opioid manufacturers and distributors who had directly contributed to the opioid addiction crisis | Conversation, USA