Reports: January |
YouGov survey shows continuing demand for Low and No-Alcohol drinks as more UK adults choose moderate consumption
The Portman Group’s eighth annual survey on low and no alcohol in partnership with YouGov shows that 86% of UK adults either abstain from alcohol or drink within Chief Medical Officer low risk drinking guidelines (up to 14 units per week), with a significant portion of the population embracing low and no alcohol alternatives. The survey found that 53% of UK adults consume 14 units of alcohol or less per week which includes 35% of adults who are drinking 5 units or less per week. A third of adults (33%) do not drink alcohol at all. Only 11% of adults exceed the Chief Medical Officer’s low risk guidelines | Portman Group, UK
UNODC, Drug Trafficking Dynamics in Libya and across North Africa (2020-2024): Trends and Implications, 2025 PDF)
Seizure data and interview research indicate a rapid rise in the volume and variety of drugs being trafficked through and into North Africa over the past decade. An increase in seizures in Libya reflects counternarcotics efforts but also suggests that the country has been increasingly used as a node in this growing regional drug trade; criminals in Libya are facilitating the movement of cannabis resin, cocaine, illicitly sourced pharmaceuticals, and synthetic drugs across West and North Africa, the Middle East, Europe and beyond | UNODC, USA
Impact statement: 10 Year Health Plan for England
The 10 Year Health Plan for England is part of the government’s health mission to build a health service fit for the future. The plan describes 3 shifts to reinvent the NHS: from hospital to community, from analogue to digital and from sickness to prevention, supported by a wider set of system changes to improve population health and make the NHS fit for the future. This impact statement explains the rationale for, and potential effects of, a number of strategies outlined in the plan. Information is included on measures to address alcohol, tobacco and other drug use | DHSC, UK
Global report on the use of alcohol taxes, 2025
This report provides a global assessment of taxes applied to alcoholic beverages in 2024. It is an update to the first assessment undertaken in 2022. It qualitatively compares their design and provides estimates of standardized metrics to measure tax levels across countries | WHO, Switzerland
Most Young Smokers Wish They Had Never Started – One Year Ahead of Landmark Smokefree Generation Policy
New data shows that 69% of 11–17-year-olds in Great Britain who currently smoke say that, if they could go back in time, they would not have started smoking. Nearly two-thirds (64%) say they want to quit. With just one year to go until the government’s planned smokefree generation policy comes into force, the data highlights the importance of phasing out the sale of tobacco, ending the harm from tobacco for the next generation | ASH, UK
Public health evaluation of BBV opt-out testing in EDs in England, 33-month final report 2025
[From December] Data shows that over 7 million tests were undertaken for blood-borne viruses (BBV) in the 34 emergency departments over a 33-month period. There were 3,667 new Hepati-tis B (HBV) diagnoses, 831 new Hepatitis C (HCV) diagnoses and 719 new HIV diagnoses across the subset of 24 sites | UKHSA, UK
U.S. Psychedelic Use and Microdosing in 2025 - Insights from a Probability-Based and Nationally Representative Survey
Among the findings were - 1) The top five psychedelic substances used by U.S. adults in the past year were psilocybin, MDMA, Amanita muscaria mushrooms, ketamine, and LSD. 2) Psilocybin was the most used psychedelic substance, with approximately 11 million U.S. adults using it in the past year and 3) Approximately 10 million U.S. adults microdosed psilocybin, LSD, or MDMA in the past year | RAND, USA
Rapid Action Drug Alerts and Response (RADAR) quarterly report
Drug-related harms remained high between September and November 2025. Although naloxone administrations fell compared to the previous quarter, they were 22% higher than in the same period in 2024. Most harms involved multiple drugs, reflecting continued polysubstance use. Significant market changes were also observed: clonazolam was the most common street benzodiazepine, detections of nitazene-type opioids in deaths reached their highest level to date, and cocaine remained the most frequently reported drug across treatment and toxicology data | Pubic Health Scotland, UK
Drug and alcohol information system (DAISy)
This annual release reports on people presenting for initial assessment at specialist drug and alcohol treatment services in Scotland provided by Alcohol and Drug Partnerships in 2024/25. For the first time this release also includes information on treatment outcomes. Across Scotland, assessment completeness was 67% in 2024/25. Initial assessments for 17,578 people accessing specialist alcohol and/or drug treatment were recorded on DAISy | Public Health Scotland, UK
Alcohol related hospital statistics
This annual release provides statistics relating to inpatient or day case admissions that occur within NHS Scotland hospitals where the patient was recorded as having at least one condition that can be wholly attributed to alcohol. In 2024/25 there were 29,430 hospital admissions for conditions wholly attributable to alcohol in Scotland. The majority of these admissions (92%) were treated in general acute hospitals (27,126) with the remaining 8% occurring in psychiatric hospitals (2,304) | Public Health Scotland, UK
Ketamine: an updated review of use and harms
Following a 2025 government commission, the ACMD has carried out a review of the use and harms of ketamine | ACMD, UK
Health Survey for England, 2024
Key findings include: 1) Prevalence of current cigarette smoking among adults continued to decline, from 27% in 1993 to 11% in 2024. 2) Current e-cigarette use among adults aged 16 and over was 10% in 2024, this is similar to 2022 (9%). These figures represent an increase from earlier years, between 2016 and 2019 6% of adults regularly used e-cigarettes. 3) 77% of adults had drunk alcohol in the last 12 months. and 4) A higher proportion of men than women had drunk alcohol in the last week (50% of men and 38% of women). Men (27%) were also more likely than women (15%) to drink at levels that put them at increasing or higher risk of alcohol-related harm (over 14 units per week) | NHS England, UK
Scratching the surface – what factors underpin public support for public health policies? (PDF)
This analysis of polling explores the factors that underpin public support for particular public health policies across tobacco, alcohol and food. The poll demonstrated that the public are concerned about the impact that tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy food and drink are having on the nation’s health and the NHS. It also revealed a distrust of big business and a desire for the government to do more to protect people from business practices that ultimately harm health | ASH, AHA, OHA, UK
THRIVE Impact Report 2024-2025
Our THRIVE Impact Report 2024-2025 offers a detailed look at our work over the past year and the impact we've had in Redcar and Cleveland. THRIVE is England's first integrated Domestic Abuse and Substance Use (IDAS) partnership | WithYou, UK
Now you see it, now you don’t: How alcohol industry interference made marketing restrictions disappear from the 10 Year Health Plan in England
In July 2025, the UK Government published its 10 Year Health Plan for England. Despite a media leak and subsequent Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) statement indicating that the Plan would contain alcohol marketing restrictions, these did not appear in the final document. We were keen to understand to what degree the removal of marketing restrictions from the 10 Year Health Plan might have been a result of commercial influence | IAS, UK