DrugWise Daily |
20th July 2026 |
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UK news
Border Force: don’t let drug smugglers steal your future
Expert officers share top tips to keep young travellers safe this summer holiday season as criminals approach young people to smuggle drugs | Home Office and Border Force, UK
NHS sets up Scotland’s first clinic to treat shocking rise in teen victims of ketamine
Doctors have set up Scotland’s first specialist clinic to treat the alarming numbers of young people who have severely damaged their bodies with ketamine. And with a ‘significant spike’ in teenagers using the dangerous and illegal drug, similar clinics could soon be established throughout the country | Mail Online, UK
Three drugs arrests after campsite death near Royal Welsh showground
Three men have been arrested on suspicion of drugs-related offences following the death of a 25-year-old man near to the Royal Welsh showground | BBC, UK
NHS: Costs
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate she has made of the cost to the NHS of treating conditions (a) caused and (b) exacerbated by (i) tobacco, (ii) alcohol and (iii) drug use | They work for you, UK
The suburb dubbed Britain's 'crazy vape shop capital'
An inner-city part of Manchester that was a bustling hub for counterfeit goods before a major police crackdown has now emerged as "Britain's vape capital" | BBC, UK
Public urged to report illegal tobacco 'stash cars'
The local authority said the parked vehicles, typically left near shops, were increasingly being used by criminals to store counterfeit cigarettes and hand rolling tobacco | BBC, UK
Maths teacher who took cocaine at school Christmas party and said he ‘always had cash from dealing’ banned
Rowan Barnicoat snorted cocaine from a rolled-up £5 note during the school Christmas party | Independent, UK
International news
Ship at centre of record cocaine seizure finally leaves Cork
A ship detained at Cork port since 2.2 tonnes of cocaine worth an estimated €157m (£133.5m) was seized on it in September 2023 has finally left the harbour | BBC, UK
Laos authorities blame lack of autopsies for failure to bring methanol death murder charges
Six foreign tourists died after drinking methanol-tainted alcohol in a backpacker town in November 2024 | Independent, UK
Grandmother, 82, wins law change so she can enjoy Happy Hour at care home
Grandmother-of-five Anita LeBrun has always loved a good glass of pinot grigio and her family's tradition of kicking off 5pm Happy Hours at their lakehouse. The 82-year-old couldn't believe it, then, when she found out last year that her Minnesota assisted living facility was prohibited from serving drinks to residents because it didn't have a licence | BBC, UK
Psilocy-win?: Canadian MPs Push for Psychedelic Therapy
On 16 June, Conservative Member of the Canadian Parliament Corey Tochor announced the introduction of legislation pushing for improved access to psilocybin, the active ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms. The new legislation is dubbed Thomas’ Bill in memory of Thomas Hartle, the first Canadian to receive legal psychedelic-assisted therapy for end-of-life anxiety related to a terminal cancer diagnosis | Talking Drugs, UK
This farmer wanted to quit the cocaine industry - he couldn't
Perea was one of thousands who joined a government-run crop substitution programme aimed at helping farmers abandon coca. But much of the promised assistance never arrived, and a lack of roads and recurring floods made it difficult to sell his produce | BBC, UK
Trends in new psychoactive substance poisonings in the Netherlands: A 14-year retrospective analysis (2012–2025)
[Open access] Data on the presence of new psychoactive substances (NPS) mainly originate from drug-checking, law enforcement and wastewater analysis sources, while data on NPS poisonings are scarce. In Europe, the documented incidence rate of NPS poisonings is highest in the Netherlands. We investigated temporal trends in NPS poisonings reported to the Dutch Poisons Information Center (DPIC) between 2012 and 2025 and compared these trends across NPS categories | Addiction, UK
Cannabis use, affect and emotion regulation in daily life: A 3-week experience sampling method study in people who smoke cannabis almost daily
[Open access] Although many people who use cannabis report mood-enhancing effects, affective responses are thought to vary within and between individuals. This study examined the bidirectional associations between momentary affect and cannabis use and the potential moderating role of emotion regulation in this | Addiction, UK
Criminal gangs targeting smaller ports to smuggle cocaine into Europe
Drug cartels are “increasingly exploiting smaller ports” to smuggle narcotics into Europe, the Irish head of the EU Drugs Agency has said. Speaking in Dublin Port at an event organised by the Irish presidency of the EU, Lorraine Nolan said that seaports are “heavily targeted” by organised criminal networks to ship drugs into the EU | Irish Examiner, Ireland
Alcohol use disorder diagnoses among commercially insured US adults from 2016 to 2023, by disability status and sex
[Open access] Epidemiologic survey studies suggest that people with disabilities are vulnerable to excessive alcohol use and alcohol use disorder (AUD), yet little is known about potential differences in clinical AUD diagnosis by disability status. Our objective was to examine trends in annual AUD diagnoses in the US from 2016 to 2023 among adults with commercial insurance, and to investigate potential differences by disability status/type, and by disability status/type and sex | DADR, USA
Curaleaf Becomes First To Supply Medical Cannabis Under Spain's New Law
Curaleaf has become the first cannabis company to provide cannabis preparation under Spain’s new medical cannabis law, giving the U.S. company a first-mover advantage in the country and positioning it more strongly in the European pharma medical cannabis market | Forbes, USA
Blogs, comment and opinion
Do patients who suffer heart attack have more micro and nanoplastic in their blood? New study assessed
Researchers found that people who smoke were six times more likely to have detectable micro- and nanoplastics in the blood supplying their hearts than non-smokers. Even more notable, every smoker who was also exposed to higher levels of air pollution had plastics detected in their blood, compared with just 12.5% of people who neither smoked nor experienced high pollution exposure. That is a remarkable difference, even in a small population | Conversation, UK
Despite claims smoking has made a comeback, just 5.6% of Australians now smoke daily
Have you noticed more smoking on screens lately? Social media feeds are littered with images of celebrities smoking at fashion events, in music videos, at parties and on the cover of Vanity Fair. Just as 1990s fashion has made a comeback, it can feel like cigarettes are having a major cultural resurgence. But social media posts aren’t a proxy for research and data. The latest National Drug Strategy Household Survey results released today tell a far more important story: smoking rates in Australia are still declining | Conversation, Australia