Blog

Substance use at UK music festivals presents a significant public health challenge, with evolving patterns of drug use, associated risk behaviours, and harm reduction practices among attendees.

Drug Science responded to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs’ (ACMD’s) call on Ketamine use, harms and interventions. We hope that our evidence can help to develop rational debate, policy making and scheduling about Ketamine.

Germany has recently taken a landmark step by introducing compassionate access to psilocybin for patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD), marking the first such programme in the European Union.

Despite the resurgence of research into the clinical efficacy and mechanism of action of psychedelic drugs such as such as psilocybin, LSD, DMT, and MDMA they are currently in Schedule 1 of the Misuse of Drugs regulations 2001.

The number of cannabis-related arrests has been increasing in Japan, accompanied by the implementation of stricter legal penalties. However, there has been little investigation into the motivations behind cannabis use or the reasons for continued use among users in Japan.

In 1996, Purdue Pharmaceutical's (Purdue) launched OxyContin, an opioid painkiller, with the largest marketing strategy in pharmaceutical history. Literature has now established that Purdue's marketing of OxyContin was a root cause of the current opioid crisis, responsible for over 600,000 deaths in and beyond North America.

Opioid-related deaths in Ontario remain persistently high, driven largely by an unstable and unregulated drug supply. In response, harm reduction services, such as supervised consumption sites/consumption and treatment services and safer supply programs, have been implemented to reduce the risks of overdose and connect people who use drugs with essential healthcare and social services.

A 2019 study revealed more than 80 products available online with implied benefits to alcohol hangover. Since then, several developments may have influenced the market.

This article discusses how unintended side effects from the international regime of drug criminalization may serve to increase harmful drug use among some population segments and performs systematic scoping reviews of two putative underlying dynamics relating to violence victimization and the forbidden fruit or psychological reactance effect.

Current regulation frameworks for medicines struggle to address the combination of pharmacological and psychotherapeutic elements in psychedelic therapy.

Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) has an estimated lifetime prevalence between 1 and 2.3% and is associated with considerable worldwide disability, while in the UK, the annual economic costs of this disorder have been estimated to be in excess of GBP 5 billion.

Kava is a culturally significant Pacific drink used traditionally with cultural practice as a relaxant, to promote dialog in group settings, to aid in sleep and to manage anxiety. Its anxiolytic and sedative properties may link to the presence of kavalactones which are putative low potency GABA ligands.

The whole Drug Science Team is shocked and incredibly saddened by the news of Hannah Deacon’s passing on May 6th, 2025, after ‘a short and brutal illness’

Stigmatised attitudes, opinions on opioid use, and prior contact with People Who Use Drugs (PWUD) contribute to what policies are publicly supported and implemented to reduce drug-related deaths. This study examined how these variables relate to policy support for the implementation of supervised injection sites, laws protecting bystanders at the scene of an overdose, and over-the-counter naloxone.

We sought to examine nascent trends surrounding the impacts of police drug seizures in the period after a substantial public policy shift surrounding the personal possession of drugs in British Columbia (BC), Canada. We explored the intersection of drug testing and police opioid seizures in Vancouver, BC.

The global regulatory landscape for psilocybin and PSILO-AT remains highly variable, with significant differences in the scope and clarity of medical governance.

Although there is growing support for the protective effects of psychedelics on mental health, recent evidence finds racial and ethnic minorities gain fewer benefits.

The increasing incidence of opioid dependence linked to the consumption of unwashed poppy seeds (UPSs) is an emerging public health concern.

A recent meta-analysis in Drug Science, Policy and Law on the risk associated with the detection of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in blood and

On the 26th of February 2025, Clive Bates wrote to an academic at Manchester Metropolitan University, Dr Maxime Boidin, about generating irr