DrugWise Daily |
28th July 2026 |
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UK news
From Rights to Recovery: Turning the Charter into Action
The Charter of Rights for People Affected by Substance Use sets out seven rights that matter — rights to life, to health, to dignity, to family, to a fair justice system. They are grounded in international law. They apply right now, to people in Scotland who are accessing, or trying to access, support for drug or alcohol use. The Charter now has a new home hosted by WithYou Scotland. | SRC, UK
UK and Ukrainian mental health experts unite to support Ukrainian frontline soldiers
National UK charity, WithYou, has met a delegation of Ukrainian psychiatrists and psychologists supporting soldiers and veterans, to share expertise and enhance support for the armed forces and their families in Ukraine | WithYou, UK
‘Impossible things are possible’: the murals celebrating lives beyond homelessness
St Mungo’s project aims to challenge stereotypes by narrating stories of people supported out of rough sleeping | Guardian, UK
Medicinal cannabis making policing 'more complex' [Jersey]
Medicinal cannabis use has made it more difficult for police officers to distinguish between legal and illegal drug use, despite fewer people being charged with drug offences, senior officers have said | BBC, UK
It's the cocktail taking young drinkers by storm - but the packaging is 'unrecyclable'
Cleaning up after pre-drinks, Aédén Rooney puts his empty BuzzBallz in the recycling. "It's plastic and metal, so I'd just assume it's recyclable," he said | BBC, UK
Organised crime gang jailed over £4m cocaine and dirty money ring
Five men have been jailed after police busted a £4m cocaine and dirty money ring in Glasgow | BBC, UK
International news
The Human Cost of Policy Shifts: A World in Turmoil (PDF)
In April 2025, the impact of the immediate withdrawal of U.S. foreign assistance on the health and well-being of people who use drugs was profound. Now one year later, the International Network of People who Use Drugs (INPUD) has conducted a follow-up global survey to check the pulse of our community and ascertain how it has fared over the last 14-months | INPUD, UK
Efficacy and safety of pharmacological interventions for the treatment of cocaine use disorder: A systematic review and network meta-analysis
[Open access] This synthesis of findings from 163 randomised trials confirms that the search for a pharmacological solution to cocaine dependence has largely been futile: "if the patient has sufficient resolve to keep taking medications, they are probably also well on the way to succeeding in any sort of treatment, whether or not it involves medications" | Addiction, UK
Tracking trends in new psychoactive substance poisonings with Annette Nugteren-van Lonkhuyzen - podcast
In this episode, Dr Elle Wadsworth talks to Annette Nugteren-van Lonkhuyzen, a PhD student and toxicologist at the Dutch National Poisons Information Centre in Utrecht, the Netherlands. The interview covers Annette’s research article examining trends in new psychoactive substance (NPS) poisonings in the Netherlands over a 14-year period Z | SSA, UK
Police seize more than 2.6 tonnes of cocaine from ‘ultra-fast’ boat off Portugal
The drugs, with an estimated street value of €500 million ($570 million), was found aboard an "ultra-fast ocean-going rigid inflatable boat", which smugglers typically use to recover illicit cargoes dropped at sea by large ships arriving from South America, the Guardia di Finanza police said in a statement | Independent, UK
Hegseth’s 67 deadly drug boat strikes have not stopped cocaine from flooding into the US. Trump’s own DEA says so: report
Traffickers are using planes, larger boats and sailing close to coastlines as cocaine production in South America ramps up | Independent, UK
On the front line of Ecuador's drugs war, police fight gangs, guns and corruption
In the Ecuadoran city of Durán, riddled with drugs and rival gangs, Police Captain Jean Carlos Bustamante knows exactly what he is up against – not just the criminals who kill and sometimes dismember their rivals, but also the enemy within | BBC, UK
Navigating ‘k-land’: a qualitative exploration of participants’ experiences of ketamine-assisted psychotherapy for methamphetamine use disorder
[Open access] Reports from patients offered ketamine-assisted psychotherapy for methamphetamine use highlight the "potential role of pharmacologically induced altered states in creating a temporally bounded window of psychological flexibility and receptivity" | Frontiers in Psychiatry, USA
Association of GLP-1 Receptor Agonist Prescriptions and Alcohol Consumption in the National Institutes of Health's All of Us Cohort
[Open access] Data from a large US survey is consistent with the theory that weight-loss medications lead to reductions in the frequency of drinking | ACER, USA
Blogs, comment and opinion
30 years of the code: Beetlejuice
“Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice”. In this case, it’s summoned Dr Thirsty’s Beetlejuice and the Panel’s decision from 1997. A Trading Standards Officer from Bristol complained that the product suggested it was a reputed aphrodisiac and that the character on the bottle would predominantly appeal to under-18s | Portman Group, UK
The Benadryl Challenge isn’t going away – here’s how public health officials are trying to stop this deadly viral trend
In May and June 2026, four American teens died participating in the “Benadryl Challenge.” This trend encourages adolescents and young adults to consume excessive amounts of diphenhydramine – the active ingredient in Benadryl – to induce hallucinations | Conversation, USA