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Daily news - 19th January 2026

Thank you very much to ESH for kindly renewing their sponsorship to this newsletter.

UK news

The government’s response to the amendment to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) report on the evidence on the use and harms of xylazine, medetomidine and detomidine

This letter from Sarah Jones MP, Minister for Policing and Crime, provides responses to the ACMD's recommendations regarding the use and harms of xylazine, medetomidine and detomidine Sarah Jones MP | ACMD, UK

Dry January drives London's thirst for low and zero alcohol drinks

As Dry January gains momentum across the capital, Londoners are increasingly turning to low and zero alcohol drinks – and businesses are keen to meet the demand | BBC, UK

New campaign targets rising ketamine abuse

Dorset's 'Forget The Ket' campaign is shaped by people with lived experience of ketamine use. Liv first took drugs aged 11 but said she started taking harder substances when she went to university. "In just a few years I went from being an A-star student to being in hospital every week for seizures and overdoses...| BBC, UK

Children as young as 13 admit vaping, say NHS staff

Staff on a paediatric ward are highlighting the dangers of e-cigarettes after patients as young as 13 "openly admitted to vaping". Kettering General Hospital said the popularity of the habit is rising, even though it is illegal to sell nicotine vaping products to anyone under 18 | BBC, UK

Alcoholic Drinks: Excise Duties

To ask the Chancellor of the exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of alcohol duty levels on the financial sustainability of community pubs | They work for you, UK

Justice Committee

I thank the Backbench Business Committee for allocating time for me to make a statement on behalf of the Justice Committee on the Government’s response to the Committee’s sixth report in this Parliament, “Tackling the drugs crisis in our prisons”. The report was published on 31 October 2025, and the Government response was received on 29 December 2025 and published on 9 January 2026 | They work for you, UK

Smoking: Death

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people died from smoking in England in each year since 2021 | They work for you, UK

Drugs: Crime

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what data her Department holds on trends in the level of drug misuse crime| They work for you, UK

Council guarantees support for drug & alcohol dependency

Thousands of Somerset residents will continue to receive support for alcohol and drug addition after front-line funding was committed until 2029 | Chad and Ilminster News, UK

Call for government action over town's vape shops

Businesses have called for government action as they claim the rising number of vape shops is adversely affecting footfall in their town in north Nottinghamshire | BBC, UK

Shopping centre to become vape-free

A shopping centre will become a vape-free environment in order to create a cleaner and healthier place to visit and work, the site's director has announced | BBC, UK

Proposals to investigate legalising cannabis [Guernsey]

The requête led by Committee for Home Affairs President Marc Leadbeater is to create a new cross-committee working group to look at the regulation of the drug | BBC, UK

Drug dealer jailed over £1m ketamine haul

A drug dealer caught with ketamine with an estimated street value of up to £1.5m has been jailed | BBC, UK

International news

Varenicline for cannabis use disorder: A randomized controlled trial

Established as a treatment for tobacco smoking, varenicline joins the list of medications not clearly shown to be effective in the treatment of cannabis use disorder. Psychosocial therapie s remain the most promising approaches | Addiction, UK

A hotline to report vapers and caning if you're caught: Singapore's e-cigarette crackdown

Vapes or e-cigarettes have been banned in the city-state since 2018. But in recent years drug-laced vapes, known by their street name K-pods, have become popular on the black market - unnerving a country known for its zero tolerance of drugs | BBC, UK

Call to extend pub opening hours if Ireland qualifies for World Cup

Independent TD says temporary licensing flexibility would let fans safely watch late-night World Cup matches together if Ireland qualifies | Irish Examiner, Ireland

‘Laughing gas’ may be added to list of drugs tested for at roadside Garda checkpoints

Nitrous oxide not a prohibited substance, but a ‘growing problem’ as a recreational drug | Irish Times, Ireland

Public Views About Opioid Overdose and People With Opioid Use Disorder

In this survey study of 1552 US adults, more than 70% of survey respondents viewed opioid overdose as serious and identified people who use opioids and pharmaceutical companies as most responsible for solutions; by ideology, 65% or more of conservatives, moderates, and liberals shared these views. Overall, 38% and 58% were unwilling to have a person with opioid addiction as a neighbor or marry into their family, respectively | JAMA Network Open, USA

Harm reduction vending machines in New York State expand access to overdose treatment and drug test strips, UB studies confirm

Two studies led by an opioid treatment program run by the University at Buffalo and UBMD Emergency Medicine have found that harm reduction vending machines installed across New York State are well utilized and provide critical, lifesaving services to high-risk individuals who might not otherwise have access | University at Buffalo, USA

Marijuana Legalization and Suicides Among Older Adults

In the USA “suicide rates among older age groups decline following the opening of recreational marijuana dispensaries”, especially among demographics most prone to ‘deaths of despair’. The presumed mechanism is self-medication with cannabis for physical and psychological problems | NBER, USA

Treating addiction with immunotherapy: BYU study links alcohol use and the immune system

First study to see if alcohol consumption involves neuroimmune mechanisms | BYU, USA

What Should a Vape Shop Look Like?

Iam allergic to dust, mold and pollen. My husband has COPD and sometimes struggles to breathe. So we took steps to improve the air quality in our home. To figure out what would actually help, I turned to some local shops for guidance | Filter Magazine, USA

[Open access] Supervised injecting facilities (SIFs) reduce drug-related harms and associated costs, but evidence is limited to a few settings. This study estimates rates of initiation, cessation, and resumption of Melbourne’s Medically Supervised Injecting Room (MSIR) use among a cohort of people who inject drugs | IJDP, USA

[Open access] Mandate is a site of political framing crucial to understanding the potential in a policy window. Yet the multiple uses of the word mandate, by government and advocates, suggests a more complex array of meanings. In this paper we sought to analyse how mandate was variously deployed by multiple policy actors in the lead up to and at a significant drug policy window (the 2024 NSW Drug Summit). We aimed to explore its uses and meanings and how these make possible or constrain policy reform | IJDP, USA

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