Home | Archive | Weekly | Reports

Daily news - 12th January 2026

A BIG thank you to Change Grow Live for renewing their much valued sponsorship to DrugWise Daily. You are helping to keep this service going for thousands in the field.

UK news

'More people will need stomas from ketamine abuse'

An expert at Aintree University Hospital in Liverpool is warning ketamine addicts they could end up with their bladders having to be removed. There has been a huge rise in people taking the drug, which is normally used as an anaesthetic in both human and veterinary medicine. A specialist clinic has been set up at the hospital to help long-term users who have developed significant bladder damage - and medics have said a rise in use of the drug could lead to more people having issues | BBC, UK

Health team says fewer youngsters drinking alcohol

In 2023, Sunderland City Council launched its Time to Rethink Drink strategy which aims to tackle the harms caused by alcohol across the city. Updating officials about the scheme, Sarah Norman from the authority's public health and wellbeing team, said her department had "definitely seen a reduction in alcohol consumption amongst young people" | BBC, UK

Nearly 800 North Tyneside Class A drug users not in treatment, report estimates

North Tyneside Council says it is working with partners to bring down the barriers to recovery | Chronicle Live, UK

Public health impacts of increasing the minimum unit price for alcohol in Scotland: A model-based appraisal

[Open access] Governments in several countries have introduced a minimum unit price (MUP) for alcohol. Evaluation studies suggest this has reduced alcohol-related harm, but MUPs must increase with inflation to remain effective. This paper estimates the impact of the impact of the Scottish Government’s decision to increase its MUP from £0.50 to £0.65 in September 2024 and, alternative options where the MUP changes to between £0.40 and £0.80 | PLOS Medicine, UK

Is Dry January a modern temperance movement?

Millions of people trying to cut out alcohol for Dry January may not realise they are following in the footsteps of a 19th Century social movement that began in the mills of West Yorkshire | BBC, UK

[Open access] Our study presents a novel analysis into health-related amenities and change in availability between 2014 and 2024. We used geographic data analysis and statistical modelling of Ordnance Survey Points of Interest data to describe the association between health-related amenities, area level deprivation and region across England | Social Science and Medicine, UK

Co Armagh woman calls for rehab facility after alcohol recovery struggle

A woman from Co Armagh is fighting for a local rehabilitation facility to be developed following her own struggle with recovery from alcohol addiction | Belfast Live, UK

Glasgow Safer Drug Consumption Facility — [Martin Vickers in the Chair]

I beg to move, That this House has considered the Third Report of the Scottish Affairs Committee, Problem drug use in Scotland follow-up: Glasgow’s Safer Drug Consumption Facility, HC 630, and the Government response, HC 1485... | They work for you, UK

No link between e-cigarette exposure and dog poisoning severity, study suggests

Only one out of more than 300 dogs died as a result of exposure, according to the latest analysis, although the issue may be becoming more common | Vet Times, UK

Police seize two tonnes of cannabis in farm raid

Police have recovered about two tonnes of cannabis from a tenement farm in what is believed to be one of the largest ever seizures of its kind in the UK | BBC, UK

More than 160 arrested for drink and drug-driving

Cumbria Police said 94 drivers were detained for drug-driving offences while 50 and 21 were respectively arrested on suspicion of drink-driving or failing to either provide a specimen for analysis or comply with a drugs wipe | BBC, UK

International news

How much alcohol is too much to drink?

New Trump administration nutrition guidelines throw away decades of precedent | Independent, UK

The truth about how many drugs in the US come from Venezuela | Debunked

Donald Trump has claimed “a lot of drugs” are coming out of Venezuela - but do the figures back up the president’s claims? | Independent, UK

[Open access] Drug overdose (OD) deaths in the United States have risen exponentially for four decades and surged further during the COVID 19 pandemic; the drivers of this surge remain unclear.To quantify excess OD mortality during COVID 19, separate its temporal components, and identify social, economic, and drug supply factors—especially Economic Impact Payments (EIPs)—linked to those components | IJDP, USA

What does cannabis 'rescheduling' mean for science and society?

Tens of millions of Americans turn to cannabis products every week to try to ease their pain, calm their anxiety, get more sleep, help them cope with the side effects of chemotherapy, or just relax and unwind | Medical Xpress, USA

Smartphone-based interventions show promise for reducing alcohol and cannabis use

New research shows that such interventions for alcohol and cannabis use among young adults show potential to reduce harms, according to three reports in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs | Medical Xpress, USA

Yoga for Opioid Withdrawal and Autonomic Regulation

[Open access] In this trial, yoga significantly enhanced opioid withdrawal recovery through measurable autonomic and clinical improvements, supporting its integration into withdrawal protocols as a neurobiologically informed intervention | JAMA Psychiatry, USA

Guidance updated for laboratory testing for drugs of misuse in ED

Christine L.H. Snozek, Ph.D., from the Mayo Clinic Arizona in Phoenix, and colleagues developed guidance on laboratory testing for drugs of misuse to support the ED. The guidance provides recommendations primarily targeted to U.S. hospital-based laboratories performing urine drug testing | Medical Xpress, USA

[Open access] Offering fixed amounts of wine hourly to severely dependent supportive-housing residents is radical enough, but in Toronto they also tried offering a choice of cannabis instead. Residents drank nearly two-and-a-half Canadian standard drinks fewer for each joint they smoked | IJDP, UK

One doctor's experience shows the battle for the future of addiction medicine

Dr. Elyse Stevens had a reputation for taking on complex medical cases, including people who'd been battling addiction for decades. Some were chronic-pain patients on high doses of opioids; others were sex workers and people living on the street | npr, USA

Asia-Pacific’s Harm Reduction Blind Spot Is Costing Lives

Most people who smoke tobacco live in the Asia-Pacific region. Millions of them die of smoking-related causes each year. Yet many of the region’s governments are banning or strangling the very products that are driving smoking rates down in other parts of the world | Filter Magazine, USA

Blogs, comment and opinion

Our response to the ACMD’S call for evidence on Drug use in LGBT+ Communities and Chemsex

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) recently issued a call for evidence exploring patterns of drug use and drug-related harms within LGBT+ communities across the UK, with a particular focus on chemsex. The review seeks to better understand the unique drivers of substance use, the barriers people face when accessing support, and the actions needed to reduce harm and improve outcomes for LGBT+ people | AntiStigma Network, UK

Collective Voice raises concerns regarding the Government’s response to the Justice Committee’s report on drugs in prisons

The Justice Committee’s report demonstrated clearly the seriousness and urgency of the issue of drugs in prisons. It is encouraging that the Government has acknowledged the importance of both the immediate threats and long-term challenges that drugs pose to safety in prisons and rehabilitation. However, in only partially accepting many of the Committee’s recommendations we are concerned that the Government is failing to acknowledge the fundamental changes required to improve outcomes | Collective Voice, UK

Bob Weir obituary

One of the founding members of the Grateful Dead, brilliant guitarist and writer of many of the group’s key songs | Guardian, UK

Meth inflames and stimulates your brain through similar pathways – new research offers potential avenue to treat meth addiction

Methamphetamine doesn’t just spike levels of the pleasure-inducing hormone dopamine in the reward pathways of the brain – it also provokes damaging brain inflammation through similar mechanisms | Conversation, USA

Extend Studio