JANUARY

A‘ people’ s panel’ set up to look into the‘ public health emergency’ of drug harms in Scotland recommends ring-fenced funding and a focus on prevention, while the country’ s – and the UK’ s – first consumption room finally opens in Glasgow. The government bans xylazine as a class C substance and seeks the ACMD’ s advice on rescheduling ketamine to class A.

money, rather than just going back to“ let’ s employ more drug workers?” No. But I would say, overall, we’ re going in the right direction and we’ ve done the right things. They’ re just very difficult to do.’

– which has claimed a million lives this century – with a‘ remarkable’ 27 per cent drop in predicted deaths.

FEBRUARY

Alcohol-specific deaths in the UK hit their highest ever level, at almost 10,500, while the interim report of former justice secretary David Gauke’ s sentencing review finds that capacity pressures in the prison system brought it‘ dangerously close to collapse’. The government announces that‘ cuckooing’ will become a specific criminal offence while Dame Carol Black tells DDN that‘ without doubt’ some local authorities have responded better to the challenges facing the treatment system than others.‘ Has there been enough innovation with the

MARCH

There’ s more stark evidence of the UK’ s increasingly unpredictable drug supply when 33 people in a single London borough are taken ill after consuming what they thought was heroin, while NHS Scotland and Public Health Scotland both issue alerts about a spate of‘ sudden collapse’ overdoses – with tests revealing the presence of powerful nitazenetype opioids. Global executions for drug offences reach‘ crisis levels’ according to the latest HRI analysis, while former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte is arrested and charged with crimes against humanity.

APRIL

A study by UCL and the University of Exeter finds that almost half of those affected

by ketamine use disorder are not seeking treatment – with many‘ too embarrassed’ – while Adfam’ s Robert Stebbings writes in DDN about the disturbing findings of research into the levels of family support across the UK. An FoI request revealed that less than half of local authorities were able to provide any data on the funding allocated to family and carer support, with the national average among those that could supply numbers standing at an‘ alarming’ 0.2 per cent of their substance misuse budgets.

MAY

New recommendations to help police and local authorities deal with the threat posed by synthetic opioids are published by the Home Office, as analysis by the Health Foundation sets out how the drug death rate is now taking its toll on UK life expectancy. Provisional figures from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, however, show that the tide might finally be turning for America’ s ongoing opioid crisis

JUNE

The Loop warns about deadly nitazene pills in circulation as EUDA’ s latest European drug report says almost 90 new synthetic opioids have been identified since 2009. Lisa Ogilvie tells DDN readers how to make ketamine services sensitive and responsive, and drugs campaigner Peter Krykant dies aged 48.

JULY

The long-awaited ten-year health plan for England is published, with campaigners dismayed at its lack of action to address alcohol harm. Meanwhile the Irish government delays its introduction of mandatory alcohol health labelling – signed into law in 2023 – until 2028, in what campaigners brand a‘ failure of leadership and democracy’. ASH warns of‘ soaring misconceptions’ around vaping, with 56 per cent of adults and 63