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Weekly news - 30th October 2026 |
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In date order, Monday to Friday
How cocaine conquered the UK: in pubs, festivals and workplaces the drug has become an everyday habit
Previously considered a middle-class drug, price drops have made cocaine more widely available, and created a new set of problems | Guardian, UK
Cocaine-linked crimes on the rise in Britain as consumption surges
Exclusive: Wastewater analysis in England suggests people took roughly 2.5bn lines of drug in one year | Guardian, UK
Ageing users and record deaths – the data behind Britain’s multibillion-pound cocaine habit
Sewage samples and crime statistics paint a picture of established users taking more cocaine, more often | Guardian, UK
Needle and syringe programmes - EDM (Early Day Motion)1018: tabled on 21 October 2026
Motion text - That this House welcomes the Out of Reach report (PDF), published by the Hepatitis C Trust, alerting us to the declining access to needle and syringe programmes (NSPs) and the threat to public health... | UK Parliament, UK
Ground-breaking survey shines new light on smoking rates in London’s LGBTQ+ community
Smoking rates in London’s LGBTQ+ community are being driven by social isolation and lifestyle pressures, according to the findings of a ground-breaking survey. Stress, anxiety, loneliness and the need for friendship are all cited by LGBTQ+ people as key reasons why they smoke, with nicotine use and socialising closely linked | London Post, UK
Boom in weight-loss drugs could lead to fall in beer sales, Heineken warns UK pubs
World’s second largest brewer says use of drugs such as Wegovy can reduce desire to drink alcohol | Guardian, UK
More than third of deaths of ex-prisoners on probation drug related, says report
More than a third of deaths of former prisoners on probation in Wales in a year were drug related, according to a new report. (PDF) This was higher than across England and Wales combined, where just over a fifth of total deaths were drug related. The Wales Governance Centre at Cardiff University, which published the report, urged politicians to tackle "systematic failures" in the criminal justice system. Report author Dr Robert Jones called on the UK and Welsh governments to find a solution to the "tragic" situation | BBC, UK
‘He was like 10 men after taking cocaine‘: how Britain’s drug habit is fuelling domestic abuse
Home Office figures show nearly two-thirds of drug tests carried out on arrested abuse suspects detected use of a drug that ‘boosts confidence but increases paranoia’ | Guardian, UK
Government urged to ‘come clean’ on new alcohol tag scheme used on early release prisoners
The SCRAM alcohol monitoring bracelet had a 97 per cent success rate with offenders but is being replaced by a new model | Independent, UK
Public attitudes towards the UK alcohol duty reforms:Briefing Note - October 2026 (PDF)
This briefing note reports findings from a study evaluating alcohol pricing policies implemented in the United Kingdom. These include: 1) A 10% increase on alcohol taxes and changes to the structure of the tax system, collectively known as the alcohol duty reforms. These policies were introduced in the United Kingdom in 2023 during a cost-of-living crisis, and 2) Minimum unit pricing (MUP), which was introduced in Scotland in 2018 (and subsequently increased in 2024) and Wales in 2020 | SARG, UK
Alcohol-specific deaths fall 3%
The number of deaths wholly attributed to alcohol fell by 3% in 2025, according to new figures from National Records of Scotland. There were 1,152 alcohol-specific deaths registered last year, 33 fewer than in 2024. The fall was driven by a decrease of 43 in the number of deaths among males while there was an increase of 10 deaths among females. The rate of deaths among males is still twice that of females | NRS, UK
Women's alcohol deaths are increasing - my daughter died after fighting for decades
The number of women who died last year in Scotland from alcohol-related illnesses was up by 3% on the year before, official figures show | BBC, UK
Rapid Action Drug Alerts and Response (RADAR) quarterly report
Drug-related harm in Scotland remains high. Between June and August 2026, ambulance naloxone administration incidents were stable, while suspected drug deaths decreased compared with the previous quarter. Cocaine was the most frequently reported drug across treatment and toxicology data. The benzodiazepine market continued to evolve, with frequent detections of novel benzodiazepines. Nitazenes were detected in 8% of deaths positive for a controlled drug. Reports and detections of nitazenes have decreased across several indicators | PHS, UK
Rapid Action Drug Alerts and Response (RADAR) Alert: Nitazenes Briefing
Nitazenes are a group of potent synthetic opioids that are now widely detected across Scotland. Nitazenes pose a high risk of overdose, hospitalisation and death. Different types have been detected. Some are hundreds of times more potent than heroin. Nitazenes are most commonly found as an unexpected contaminant in drugs sold as heroin, benzodiazepines and oxycodone. Services supporting people who take drugs should promote and discuss harm reduction measures. All staff should be aware of the signs of overdose and the immediate actions required, in particular the use of naloxone | PHS, UK
Prescribing for opioid dependence in Scotland
This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) provides updated statistics on opioid agonist therapy (OAT) prescribing in Scotland. OAT is an evidence-based treatment for opioid dependence that aims to reduce illicit opioid use and associated harms. This report provides an overview of OAT prescribing in both community and prison settings in Scotland, including data on prescriptions dispensed and estimates of the number of individuals receiving treatment | PHS, UK
E-cigarettes help smokers quit even without behavioral support sessions
A new study by Queen Mary University of London, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), has found that e-cigarettes can help people quit smoking even without ongoing behavioral support | News Medical, UK
AI bots flooded 2023 UK government consultation on disposable vapes ban
Three-quarters of all responses were machine-generated in failed attempt to stop bill from passing into law, research finds | Guardian, UK
Criminalisation of hard drugs e.g. heroin - YouGov survey
Latest answers to a range of questions on the decriminalisation of drugs. Scroll down the YouGov page to see all opinion data on the topic | YouGov, UK
Budget 2026: Time to raise our ambitions
[Yesterday](28 October 2026), the Chancellor announced that alcohol duty will continue to match inflation for a third consecutive Budget. While welcome, the decision does not match the scale of alcohol harm across the UK. Greater action could improve the nation's health and prosperity, raise much-needed revenue and help the Government deliver its ambitions for a healthier, safer and more productive society | Alcohol Change UK, UK
Identification and quantification of Δ-9-tetrahydrocannabinol and the synthetic cannabinoid MDMB-4en-PINACA in edible products seized by United Kingdom police in 2024
[Open access] Cannabis edible products are increasingly being sold on the illicit market around the world. Use of these products, typically labelled as containing THC, has been linked to adverse health effects, particularly amongst adolescents. Here, we aimed to conduct the first study to quantify the THC content of cannabis edibles seized by United Kingdom (UK) police forces. We also sought to identify and quantify other drugs present, perform a visual analysis of packaging designs and evaluate the effectiveness of a field-portable device for rapid drug identification | Addiction, UK
Alcohol consumption and health-related economic inactivity among working-age adults in England: A population study, 2014 to 2025
[Open access] In England, the proportion of adults not in work due to long-term illness or disability has risen sharply in recent years. This study examined differences in trends in health-related economic inactivity between 2014 and 2025 by level of alcohol consumption | Addiction, UK
Under-18 sales ban extended to nicotine products and all vapes
Government implements new restrictions on the sale and promotion of vapes and nicotine products across the UK | DHSC, UK
Under-18 sales ban on nicotine products and all vapes
Chief Medical Officer responds to restrictions on the sale and promotion of vapes and nicotine products | Department of Health and Social Care and Professor Chris Whitty, UK
Vulnerable at risk as 'life-saving' drug needle site closes
A drug needle exchange in Belfast is set to close within days because the charity which runs the service is losing its city centre premises. The exchange, run by Extern, allowed people who inject heroin or cocaine to safely dispose used needles, receive clean needles and access health services. The service will shut on 2 November and move to a "significantly reduced street-based service" following the loss of Extern's Royal Avenue premises | BBC, UK
Hull pledges to become 'Inclusive Recovery City' to help tackle drug addiction
The aim is to weave recovery directly into community life through public events, Hull role models, and better access to jobs and stable housing | Hull Live, UK