NEWS ROUND-UP
Drugs the‘ single most destabilising factor’ across the prison estate
Illicit drugs are the single most destabilising factor across the entire adult prison estate, according to the annual report from the Independent Monitoring Boards( IMB). At one prison, HMP High Down in Surrey, IMB members recorded 13 drug-related medical emergencies in a single day.
As well as life-threatening medical incidents, drugs are also fuelling violence, debt, intimidation and self-isolation, the document states, with medical emergencies alone‘ placing extreme strain on healthcare and operational staff’.
Even when prisons do manage to reduce levels of drug use, IMB members‘ often observed spikes in debt-related violence and anxiety-driven self harm, as drug dealers sought to collect their debts, destabilising regimes further’, the report says.
IMB are statutory bodies made up of volunteers appointed to monitor the treatment and welfare of prisoners, with the report’ s findings presenting a‘ consistent and deeply troubling picture’ across the country. Prisoners were living in‘ increasingly unsafe and demoralising’ conditions, and failures once regarded as serious were becoming normalised, it says.
Many of the most serious issues mirrored‘ those raised repeatedly in IMB annual reports over the past decade’, with long-standing failures‘ compounded’ rather than resolved – raising‘ unavoidable questions about effectiveness, accountability and the system’ s capacity to correct its course’. The findings echo those
NPS still being detected in Europe at a rate of one a week of other bodies, with HM Inspectorate of Prisons warning that drugs were now undermining‘ every aspect’ of prison life and the National Audit Office saying that the prison service had been far too slow in responding to the‘ substantial, increasing and rapidly changing’ threats posed by drugs in the prison estate.
The bleakness of the overall picture‘ matters because it is felt every day by people in custody’, said IMB interim national chair Jane Leech.‘ Poor conditions, limited regimes and unsafe environments damage mental and physical wellbeing, undermine rehabilitation, and erode dignity. They also affect public safety, the likelihood of reoffending, staff retention, and trust in the justice system.’ Report at imb. org. uk
‘ Poor conditions, limited regimes and unsafe environments... also affect public safety.’
JANE LEECH
Government to double number of intensive supervision courts
IMBs
NEW PSYCHOACTIVE SUBSTANCES( NPS) are still being detected in Europe at a rate of‘ around one a week’, according to EUDA’ s European drug report 2026. Fifty were reported for the first time last year, bringing the number being monitored in Europe to 1,050.‘ Among these are potent new synthetic opioids,’ the agency warns.
Opioids, usually in combination with other substances, remain Europe’ s leading cause of drugrelated deaths, with at least 7,600 fatal overdoses in the EU in 2024.
Almost 100 new synthetic opioids have been detected since 2009, with China’ s blanket ban on nitazenes last year possibly redirecting the market towards other substances. Nine new orphines have been identified in the last two years, linked to nearly
20 deaths. Fentanyl, meanwhile, was linked to more than 100 deaths in Bulgaria alone between 2024 and 2025.
The continent’ s heroin market is also proving resilient, EUDA states, with‘ tactical supply management’ of Afghanistan’ s large opium stockpiles providing a‘ buffer’ to the sharp decline in cultivation and production after the Taliban’ s 2022 opium ban. Production is also shifting elsewhere, it points out, with 9,000 hectares of opium poppy cultivation in Pakistan – rivalling Afghanistan’ s output – and cultivation in Myanmar reaching a ten-year peak.
EUDA estimates that there are around 522,000 people who inject drugs in the EU, rising to 530,000 with the inclusion of Norway. Report at www. euda. europa. eu
THE GOVERNMENT HAS ANNOUNCED £ 9M FUNDING to more than double the number of intensive supervision courts, which aim to cut reoffending by tackling the‘ root causes’ of crime.
The intensive supervision court model sees lowlevel offenders attend
‘ Custody alone does little to rehabilitate offenders.’
BARONESS GILLIAN MERRON
weekly sessions and regularly appear before the same judge, recognising that‘ factors like addiction and trauma can be the root causes’ of repeat offending, MoJ states. However, people who refuse to engage in mandatory treatment or attend hearings – or continue to use substances – can then face tagging or prison time.
The model has already been successfully piloted in Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool and Teesside, with a second Liverpool court to open soon.‘ We know that custody alone does little to rehabilitate offenders, particularly those whose crimes are driven by addiction or mental health issues,’ said mental health minister Baroness Gillian Merron.
4 • DRINK AND DRUGS NEWS • JULY / AUGUST 2026 WWW. DRINKANDDRUGSNEWS. COM