Experts say seeking alternatives that deliver the same dose of oestrogen by the same method is key
Women in the UK are again facing shortages of some HRT products, with warnings they could persist for weeks. We take a look at the situation.
Continue reading...Toxicology helplines report 42% increase in calls involving animals poisoned by drugs and nicotine
A record number of pets are ingesting recreational drugs and requiring veterinary care in the UK, figures shared with the Guardian reveal.
Last year, the UK’s only emergency poison centre for animals received its highest ever number of calls involving animals poisoned by cannabis, cocaine, magic mushrooms and nicotine, and it is on course to do so again this year.
Continue reading...Aidan Hamilton and Robert Strang died after apparently ingesting kratom product last month
Federal authorities investigating the recent deaths of two University of Mississippi students have charged a store clerk and his son with selling an illegal kratom product, prosecutors announced on Friday.
A drug taskforce in Mississippi had previously urged people to avoid kratom, an herbal substance that acts as a stimulant at low doses and a sedative at high doses, after authorities found packages of kratom derivatives while investigating the deaths on 21 September.
Continue reading...Dozens of US attacks on boats in the Pacific and Caribbean have killed more than 230 people since September 2025
A special rapporteur for the UN human rights council has concluded that there are “reasonable grounds to believe” that the United States attacks on boats allegedly carrying drugs in the Pacific and Caribbean “constituted crimes against humanity”.
The boat strikes, carried out since September 2025 on the stated grounds of stopping drugs being trafficked by sea to the US, have killed more than 230 people. The latest, on Saturday, killed four people in the Caribbean.
Continue reading...Government estimates that one in 60 adults in Fiji now living with HIV, as escalating use of methamphetamine fuels ‘epidemic’
Fiji has declared a national HIV emergency amid a spike in infections as the Pacific nation grapples with a correlating rise in methamphetamine use.
The country’s health and medical services minister, Dr Ratu Atonio Lalabalavu, said in a statement on social media that an outbreak-level response was no longer sufficient to address what he described an “epidemic”.
Continue reading...Trump administration to seek extra funding from Congress to ‘dismantle’ Los Tiguerones over narcotics trafficking
The US has designated Ecuador’s Los Tiguerones gang, which stormed a television station during a live broadcast in 2024, as a terrorist organisation as the Trump administration expands its campaign against narcotics traffickers it says are destabilising Latin America.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, made the announcement in Quito, where he met Ecuadorian president Daniel Noboa, one of several rightwing allies of Donald Trump whom Rubio is courting as a security partner during a three-nation tour through Latin America that began on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Analysis of two skeletons reveals tooth wear and traces of psychoactive substance in what may be earliest known evidence for human drug taking
What may be the earliest known evidence for human drug taking has been traced to ancient Indonesian foragers who sucked on mind-altering nuts as long as 25,000 years ago.
Analysis of two exceptionally rare skeletons from the Indonesian island of Sulawesi revealed dramatic tooth wear and traces of a psychoactive substance in the individuals’ remaining teeth, suggesting they routinely sucked on hard, abrasive betel nuts.
Continue reading...Use of sniffer dogs and searches will continue despite health and harm reduction groups arguing they could lead to riskier drug taking
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Drug testing will resume at New South Wales music festivals from October, but will not be rolled out into the wider community despite calls from peak health and harm reduction groups, while the controversial use of sniffer dogs and searches will continue.
On Wednesday the state government announced NSW Health will consult with the music festival industry and harm reduction organisations to roll out pill testing at up to 15 music festivals each year.
Continue reading...FDA officials approve first-of-a-kind pill called daraxonrasib to fight one of the deadliest types of cancer
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a groundbreaking new drug for the most common form of pancreatic cancer, offering US patients a more effective treatment against one of the deadliest types of the disease.
FDA officials gave expedited approval to the first-of-a-kind pill, called daraxonrasib, that blocks a mutated protein which fuels tumor growth in more than 90% of pancreatic cancer cases. It’s an approach that has eluded drugmakers for decades.
Continue reading...US Southern Command has struck another vessel in the eastern Pacific, killing two accused of trafficking drugs
The US military has launched a deadly strike on a vessel in the Pacific Ocean, killing two people accused of drug trafficking.
On Monday, US Southern Command (SouthCom) announced it “executed a lethal kinetic strike on a low-profile vessel operating along established narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific”.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Voluntary use of sex drive-suppressing medication to expand to 20 prisons and expert says it could be rolled out widely by late 2028
Drugs that help control the libidos of people who have committed sexual offences could be rolled out for thousands of male prisoners in England and Wales from December 2028, an expert has said.
Prof Belinda Winder, who has evaluated the use of sex drive-suppressing medication in prisons, said about one in four sex offenders – equating to 3,750 current prisoners – would be considered for the treatment.
Continue reading...Many males are returned even if they have been trafficked but Home Office must now consider new legal guidance
The Home Office could be blocked from deporting many young male trafficking victims to Albania after a major court ruling.
Thousands of Albanian males have been identified as potential trafficking victims in the UK in recent years. Many are sent back to their country even if they are potential or confirmed victims of trafficking, as the Home Office contends they will be safe there.
Continue reading...Flexible short-term bookings used to store and pack drugs and stash weapons and cash, says Ine Van Wymersch
Airbnb-type short-term rentals are being used as stash houses by criminal gangs for money, drugs, weapons and people, Belgium’s lead official in charge of countering drugs has said.
The booming e-commerce sector is helping “enormously” to facilitate organised crime, Belgium’s national drug commissioner, Ine Van Wymersch, said.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Research spanning 82 countries finds antibiotic resistance increased in every region between 2004 and 2022
Harry Booth has had a rough run through Australia’s coldest months. The 13-year-old has been in and out of hospital with a range of common chest and urinary tract infections that his doctors find challenging to treat.
Harry was born with kidney failure and began dialysis at six months old, before receiving a kidney transplant from his father at age four. The surgery saved his life but comes with a trade-off: he now needs to take medications that suppress his immune system to prevent his body from rejecting the kidney.
Continue reading...Case against Ismael Zambada García, who helped co-found and lead the violent Sinaloa cartel, unfolded in New York
The Mexican drug kingpin, Ismael Zambada García, known as “El Mayo”, was sentenced in a US federal court on Monday to life in prison, after a plea deal last year in which he admitted to shipping vast amounts of cocaine and other substances as leader of the violent Sinaloa cartel.
Zambada is 76 and one of the most high-profile Mexican drug traffickers to be sentenced in a US court since his fellow Sinaloa leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was sentenced to life in prison in 2019. The case unfolded in federal court in Brooklyn, New York.
Continue reading...NCA says offenders arrange to sexually assault and film victims via online networks with crimes often taking place in trusting relationships
Criminal investigators in the UK say they have uncovered a “truly international network” of organised drug-facilitated sexual assault in which victims are sedated before being raped and sexually assaulted.
The National Crime Agency [NCA] has said online networks, “many as yet unidentified by law enforcement”, were allowing offenders to arrange to rape and abuse victims or arrange for sexual assaults to be filmed.
Continue reading...Australian federal police arrested and charged two men after allegedly finding $800m worth of cocaine in ‘bunkers’ under shipping containers
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Police claim to have made Australia’s biggest ever cocaine bust after finding $800m worth of the drug buried under false flooring on a semi-rural property.
Two men, aged 21 and 25, allegedly tried to run from police and were arrested on Friday after an operation by Australian federal police, alongside investigators in multiple states.
Continue reading...Review reveals rise in users and rates of psychosis in countries where cannabis is sold commercially
Decriminalising the possession of cannabis or strictly regulating access to the drug do not appear to drive up usage, but when the drug is sold commercially the number of users increases and more mental health problems are seen, a review has found.
An international team analysed the dramatic shift in policies on cannabis between 2000 and 2025, including how the numbers of people taking the drug, its potency, and rates of psychosis changed after new rules came in.
Continue reading...Central American country says its president spoke with Pete Hegseth to confirm terms of cooperation
Guatemala has requested US military cooperation spanning access to equipment, training and experts to assist Guatemalan operations against drug trafficking, the country’s president, Bernardo Arévalo, said on Thursday.
The joint plans stopped short of US military operations on Guatemalan soil and fall within existing bilateral agreements, the government noted.
Continue reading...First responders hospitalized and decontaminated after four people were found apparently overdosing
Three people died and 18 first responders were sickened by exposure to fentanyl in a rural New Mexico home this week, New Mexico state police said.
Police initially found four people unconscious at the home in Mountainair, 90 miles (145km) east of Albuquerque. Two were declared dead at the scene and a third died at a hospital.
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