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Weekly news - 25th July 2025 |
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In date order, Monday to Friday
Contaminated drugs warning issued by health chiefs
A county's public health leaders have issued a warning about contaminated drugs circulating at festivals and parties over the summer. The councils are working with charities such as Change Grow Live and Ngage on the warning | BBC, UK
Sociodemographic and Regional Differences in Cigarette Consumption Across Great Britain: A Population Study, 2022–2024
[Open access] While smoking prevalence has declined and regional differences have narrowed over recent decades, strong socioeconomic and geographic disparities in consumption remain, with particularly high levels among less advantaged groups and in regions with historically poorer health outcomes, such as the North East and Scotland. Addressing these disparities through targeted public health efforts and cessation support could contribute meaningfully to reducing health inequalities across Great Britain | Nicotine & Tobacco Research, UK
Longitudinal study of risk factors predicting cannabis use disorder in UK young adults and adolescents
[Open access] Cannabis use disorder (CUD) affects up to 1 in 5 people who try cannabis. In order to develop effective interventions to prevent and treat CUD, it is important to identify the factors that predict it. This longitudinal study investigated whether eight potential risk factors predicted CUD levels at 12-month follow-up | Nature, UK
High on snus in school: The hidden nicotine pouches shredding teens' gums
Finn picks up a small, white, teabag-like pouch from a round, brightly coloured tin and places it between his upper lip and gum | BBC, UK
Enhancing opportunities to reduce escalation to substance use disorders through early engagement: a retrospective observational data linkage study of primary and secondary care in Wales
Tracking of people identified with a substance use problem in Wales reveals that when non-specialist health services were the identifying agency, “only a small proportion” of these incidents “resulted in a referral or subsequent presentation” to a substance misuse service | BMJ Public Health, UK
43% of drug-caused deaths by health care workers used hospital-only drugs
The study, published today in Addiction by academics from King's College London, found that doctors, nurses and other health care professionals are dying from overdoses of drugs they may have stolen from the workplace, or obtained legally but used in risky ways with fatal consequences | Medical Xpress, UK
Alcohol safety lessons after holiday poisoning
The family of a woman who died from suspected methanol poisoning while travelling in south-east Asia have succeeded in their campaign for compulsory education about the issue in schools | BBC, UK
Is London on the brink of an opioid crisis? What the capital's clubbers need to know
Synthetic opioids called nitazenes,which are up to 500 times stronger than heroin, are appearing in the capital in the form of pills, powders and vapes | Standard, UK
New modelling of alcohol pricing policies, alcohol consumption and harm in Wales
Outputs from a technical study focused on modelling work to inform a review of the 50p per unit threshold for the Minimum Price for Alcohol (MPA) policy currently in place in Wales since 2020 | Welsh Government, UK
Study: effectiveness of AI-powered wrist-worn device to detect early overdose signs
Chris Rintoul, Head of Harm Reduction at Cranstoun writes about an ongoing feasibility study they have funded, looking at the effectiveness of a Wearable Overdose Detection Device and Alert System to detect early signs of overdose | Cranstoun, UK
Judge-supervised drug treatment sentences expanded
More criminals will get drug and alcohol treatment under the close supervision of a judge as a new type of sentence is expanded. Offenders will meet a judge weekly or monthly after being sentenced, to monitor their progress in what are known as Intensive Supervision Courts, modelled on a similar system of "problem-solving courts" in Texas | BBC, UK
Stop Smoking Services — a public health success
“Local government has led the way tackling the harms caused by smoking, and these latest statistics are a testament to the 25-year success of the stop smoking services leading a steady decline in smoking rates." | Local Government, UK
Ketamine could treat depression by interacting with the brain's 'opioid system'
New research has found that Ketamine's antidepressant effects involve the brain’s opioid system | KCL, UK
Does cannabidiol reduce the adverse effects of cannabis in schizophrenia? A randomised, double-blind, cross-over trial
[Open access] In patients with schizophrenia, cannabis use exacerbates symptoms and can lead to a relapse of psychosis. Some experimental studies in healthy volunteers suggest that pre-treatment with cannabidiol (CBD) may reduce these effects, but others do not. Here, we investigated whether pre-treatment with CBD ameliorates the acute adverse effects of cannabis in patients with schizophrenia | Nature, UK