JANUARY
The latest OHID figures show a 10 per cent increase in the number of young people in contact with drug and alcohol services. At just under 12,500, however, the figure is still lower than the pre-COVID total of 14,291. Meanwhile, Britain’s first regular drug-checking service opens its doors in Bristol – licensed by the Home Office, financed by the local council, and operated by the Loop and BDP.
FEBRUARY
‘Fifty per cent of our heroin users will not die from heroin, but 50 per cent of smokers will die because they smoke,’ GSTHR’s David MacKintosh tells DDN, as he stresses the huge potential for tobacco harm reduction in drug and alcohol services. GPs are failing to warn patients of the dependence risk of prescription drugs like opioids, benzodiazepines and gabapentinoids, says an NIHR-funded study, while the Public Accounts Committee warns that the drug strategy’s ambitions won’t be achieved without funding certainty.
MARCH
The number of people sleeping rough in England is up by a quarter – and by 120 per cent since 2010 – but the figures are still a likely underestimate of the real total, charities warn. Executions for drug-related offences are up more than 40 per cent in a year, according to the latest analysis by HRI, while EMCDDA states that ‘extreme drug-related violence’ is taking its toll on Europe, with proliferating drug gangs having a ‘corrosive effect on the fabric of society’.
APRIL
After the government bans 14 nitazenes in the previous month, a report from King’s College London states that the potent non-opioid xylazine is also now established in the UK’s drug market – and ‘not limited to heroin supplies’. Given that the crisis with nitazenes and other synthetic drugs was entirely foreseeable it’s ‘unforgivable that we’re so badly prepared’, Kevin Flemen tells DDN. And as the Scottish Parliament votes to continue with MUP and increase it to 65p, the UK’s alcohol-specific death toll hits an all-time high, at more than 10,000.
MAY
OHID and NHS England launch a ten-year workforce plan, including new addiction psychiatry posts and training curricula for drug and alcohol workers and peer support staff. As the UK government tries to contain an ever-growing crisis by banning six more synthetic opioids, there’s a rare note of optimism from across the Atlantic as the US records a slight fall in its ‘staggeringly high’ drug-death statistics.
JUNE
Six of the seven new synthetic opioids reported for the first time in Europe are nitazenes, EMCDDA reports, while the UNODC’s World drug report warns that the drugs are ‘increasingly posing major health risks’. Meanwhile, 2m of the world’s 2.6m annual alcohol-related deaths are among men, says WHO.
JULY
Following its election win, the newly installed Labour government includes the tobacco and vapes bill in the King’s Speech after it was abruptly shelved by the outgoing administration, and – unsurprisingly – nitazenes and other synthetic drugs are among the topics discussed at ‘Stronger Together’, the 16th annual DDN conference. ‘When I first joined Turning Point there was a series of overdoses from something we called ‘iso’ – because nobody could pronounce isotonitazene – and naively we thought it had gone away,’ Deb Hussey tells delegates. Now, however, nitazenes were ‘being found in everything – they’re crossing genres’.
AUGUST
Scotland records yet another increase in drug-related deaths, with 1,172 registered last year, and the National Crime Agency warns that a ‘significant escalation’ in the use of nitazenes as a cheap way of increasing the strength of substances means there has ‘never been a more dangerous time to take drugs’.
SEPTEMBER
The government announces plans to ban xylazine – the effects of which, as a non-opioid, can’t be reversed by naloxone – along with 21 other drugs. As the minimum unit price in Scotland goes up by 15p the country records its highest alcohol-specific death toll since 2008, while campaigners warn that new MPs need to be wise to the industry’s lobbying tactics.
OCTOBER
Drug deaths in England and Wales are up by 10 per cent on last year, to 5,448. This includes a more than 30 per cent rise in cocaine-related deaths – the 12th consecutive increase – as UNODC reports that already record levels of production of the drug are set to rise further, with a potential increase in Colombia of more than 50 per cent. As analysis by PHS finds that two thirds of the people dying drug-related deaths in Scotland lived alone and half had previously had a non-fatal overdose, the Scottish Parliament sets up a ‘people’s panel’ to ask the public how to tackle the problem, while services still aren’t properly equipped to deal with dual diagnosis, say researchers at Glasgow Caledonian University.
NOVEMBER
Afghan opium cultivation levels are slowly increasing again – 19 per cent up on last year – following a 95 per cent drop after the Taliban’s poppy ban. Meanwhile, the county lines ‘business model’ is shifting, say police chiefs, in the wake of increased law enforcement action. While there are still 1,500 organised crime groups involved, activity now tends not to cross police force boundary areas. The tobacco and vapes bill, with its ambition to create a ‘smokefree generation’, is finally introduced to Parliament, and a certain DDN magazine celebrates its 20th anniversary!
DECEMBER
While the gambling industry – much like alcohol companies – tries to shift the focus onto a small cohort of ‘problem’ people, ultimately it’s ‘big corporations who design and provide these products – and they have to bear responsibility for the consequences,’ Glasgow University’s Heather Wardle tells DDN. Meanwhile all eyes are on what newly elected president Donald Trump and his cabinet picks – such as yet-unconfirmed healthcare choices Robert F Kennedy Jnr and TV doctor Mehmet Oz – could mean for a country that often sees around 110,000 drug-related deaths a year.