Category Archives: Drugs

Germany announces plan to legalise cannabis for recreational use

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Minister says legalisation could set precedent for rest of Europe, though plan is still subject to EU approval

Germany wants to make it legal for adults to purchase and own up to 30g of cannabis for recreational use and to privately grow up to three plants, the country’s health minister has announced, saying the intended outcome could set a precedent for the rest of the European continent.

“If this law comes to pass, it would be the most liberal project to legalise cannabis in Europe, but also the most regulated market”, the Karl Lauterbach said at a press conference in Berlin on Wednesday. “It could be a model for Europe.”

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Indonesia bans sale of syrup medicines after at least 99 child deaths

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Country investigating 206 cases of kidney injury that could be linked to ingredients in liquid medicines

Indonesia has banned the sale of all syrup medicines as it investigates the deaths this year of nearly 100 children, warning that the liquids may contain ingredients linked to fatal kidney injuries.

The move comes just weeks after the World Health Organization issued an alert over four Indian-made cough syrups that it said were potentially linked with acute kidney injuries and the deaths of 70 children in the Gambia.

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‘Canberra ketamine’: new recreational drug discovered at Australian pill-testing service

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‘As far as we’re aware, this is the first detection of a new drug by a drug-checking service anywhere in the world,’ says professor


A new recreational drug dubbed CanKet, similar to ketamine but with unknown side effects, has been found by scientists at Australia’s first fixed pill-testing site.

CanTEST, a face-to-face drug-checking service, was launched in Canberra in August. Since then, almost 200 people have brought their recreational drugs in for analysis and advice based on the results. Some people choose to discard their drugs if the service finds they are laced with harmful or unexpected substances.

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Common drugs could fight obesity and diabetes, say scientists

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Researchers identify medications that could be repurposed, including treatments for heart conditions and stomach ulcers

Scientists have pinpointed a range of commonly used medicines that could be repurposed to treat people suffering from obesity and diabetes.

The medicines – to be outlined at the International Congress on Obesity in Melbourne this weekend – include treatments for stomach ulcers and heart rhythm disorders and were identified using sophisticated computer programs.

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US shortage of Adderall is due to increased demand, FDA and drug-makers say

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FDA says supply does not meet demand and drug-maker says backorders are due to ‘significant rise’ in prescription rates

An increase in prescriptions and an ongoing labor crunch have helped contribute to a nationwide shortage of Adderall across the US.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday confirmed the shortage of the drug, used in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and narcolepsy. The FDA said Teva, the largest manufacturer, is facing “ongoing intermittent manufacturing delays”.

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Gene-edited sheep offer hope for treatment of lethal childhood disease

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Roslin Institute engineered a flock to help research into the genetics of Batten disease

A flock of gene-edited sheep has been used by scientists to pinpoint a promising treatment for a lethal inherited brain disease that afflicts young children. The researchers, based in the UK and US, say their work could lead to the development of drugs to alleviate infantile Batten disease.

In the UK, Batten disease affects between 100 and 150 children and young adults and is inherited from two symptomless parents who each carry a rare recessive gene mutation.

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Boom in unapproved medicinal cannabis products worries Australian experts

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Some patients are taking cannabis for conditions where there is little evidence it is effective, GPs and researchers say

Prescriptions for unapproved medicinal cannabis products in Australia have quadrupled since 2019, with half issued for adults aged 24 and under.

Researchers and GPs’ representatives have questioned whether the boom has led to patients taking cannabis for conditions where there is little evidence it is effective, given large gaps in the data and the role of cannabis manufacturers in promoting their product to practitioners.

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Amsterdam considers banning ‘cannabis tourists’ from its coffee shops

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Fed up with stoned visitors and worried by hard-drug criminality, the mayor wants to clean up the city. But will it work?

Strumming gently at a guitar, outside the “nicest” coffee shop in Amsterdam, French tourists Terry Novel and Manon Fouquet enjoy a quiet joint in the sun.

They have no idea of the dark cloud around them and the cannabis sector in Amsterdam. The council has just spent a day debating whether to ban tourists from cafes such as Coffeeshop The Rookies – where the state currently turns a blind eye to foreigners smoking weed and taxes the profits.

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Services for county lines victims in England and Wales get funding boost

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Up to £5m allocated to help young people escape drug gangs, with money also going to helpline

Up to £5m has been allocated by the Home Office to support victims of county lines exploitation over the next three years.

Hundreds of victims will be helped to escape drug gangs following the expansion of support services in London, the West Midlands, Merseyside and Greater Manchester.

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Implement pre-court diversion for drug users now, author of NSW ice inquiry urges

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Prof Dan Howard says he’s ‘puzzled’ it took the government nearly three years to agree to such modest changes in policing

The author of a landmark inquiry into crystal methamphetamine (“ice”) addiction in New South Wales has warned the government’s commitment to expand pre-court diversion for drug users in the state could be pushed into “the never-never” if it is not implemented by the March election.

On Wednesday the NSW government released its long-awaited response to Prof Dan Howard’s 14-month inquiry into drug addiction in NSW, committing to spending $500m on expanded treatment services and justice initiatives.

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Limits on paracetamol purchases could reduce injury and death from overdoses, expert panel says

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TGA report recommends reduced packet sizes and restricting over-the-counter sales of the drug to people 18 and over

The size of paracetamol packets sold in supermarkets could be reduced and limits introduced on the number of boxes that can be bought, in a bid to reduce injury and death from intentional overdoses.

The recommendations are contained in an independent expert report published by Australia’s drugs regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration. The report found rates of intentional paracetamol overdose were highest among adolescents and young adults, and more common among women and girls.

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Canadian advocates pledge to continue selling pure drugs amid overdose crisis

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Over the last six years, the vast majority of overdose deaths in British Columbia have been driven by impurities in street drugs

A Canadian advocacy group has pledged to continue selling cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin to users, in defiance of a federal government order to stop, arguing that their plan is the only way to save lives amid a nationwide drugs crisis.

Over the last six years, more than 10,000 people have died from drug overdoses in the province of British Columbia, with the vast majority of deaths driven by impurities in street drugs.

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Officer who wrote Met’s drug strategy smoked cannabis daily, panel told

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Commander Julian Bennett refused to take a drug test in 2020 after his lodger contacted police alleging drug use

A senior Metropolitan police commander who wrote the force’s drug strategy allegedly smoked cannabis in front of his lodger every day, a gross misconduct hearing has been told.

Commander Julian Bennett later threatened to resign when he was asked to take a drug test on 21 July 2020, a disciplinary panel heard.

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Rise in Albanian asylum seekers may be down to criminal gangs

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Albanian gangs controlling UK drugs trade offer minibus trip and Channel crossing for £4,000 on TikTok

Official data released on Thursday has confirmed suspicions that Albanians are now a prominent national group among the asylum seekers travelling across the Channel.

But the Home Office and refugee charities are still trying to explain why there has been a recent surge in demand.

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First government-backed pill testing clinic finds 40% of ‘cocaine’ contained no coke

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Canberra service examined 70 samples in August with 25% of potential users discarding drugs once made aware of what they actually contained

Australia’s first government-backed pill and drug testing service has found a majority of samples were tainted with other substances, with a quarter of people choosing to ditch their drugs after getting them checked.

In its first month of operation, Canberra’s fixed-site CanTest health and drug checking clinic examined 70 samples, with 18 people discarding their drugs once the results were in.

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Magic mushrooms’ psilocybin may help heavy drinkers cut back

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Positive results in first ‘rigorous’ trial investigating compound’s effect on alcohol use

The most rigorous test yet of psilocybin as a treatment for alcoholism has found that the compound in psychedelic mushrooms helped heavy drinkers cut back or quit entirely.

Psilocybin, found in several species of mushrooms, can cause hours of vivid hallucinations. Indigenous people have used it in healing rituals and scientists are exploring whether it can ease depression or help longtime smokers quit.

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Mexico’s citizens caught in crossfire as cartels launch attacks across the country

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Brazen strikes by organised crime leaders have left bystanders killed as many question the president’s security policies

For Carlos Holguín it was supposed to be just another day of toil.

After leaving the factory where he works morning shifts in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juárez, the 24-year-old began his nightly routine last Thursday as a food app delivery driver.

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New ‘Parp inhibitors’ could prevent certain tumours appearing

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Breakthrough research could see some genetic cancers neutralised before they take hold and is already being used for people at risk

Sue Hayward was first diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2017. Doctors acted swiftly and she was given a hysterectomy followed by sessions of chemotherapy.

But her cancer returned within a year. “I carry a mutated version of a gene known as BRCA1 which makes me susceptible to breast and ovarian cancers,” said Hayward, who works at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford. “It runs in families. My mother died of cancer and we assume her mother did as well.”

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‘Very good for tourists’: Thailand aims for high season with U-turn on cannabis

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The once-banned drug is now on sale at market stalls, beach clubs and even hotel receptions. But the laws in this ‘pot paradise’ are blurry

A distinctive sweet smell wafts through Fisherman’s Village night market on the Thai island of Koh Samui, drifting up between the sticky mango rice stalls and bucket cocktail vans. The Samui Grower cannabis stall is doing swift business tonight. A table is laid with glass jars, each displaying a different flowering green bud, with labels saying things like ‘‘Road Dawg’ hybrid THC25% 850TBH/gram”.

Elsewhere on the island, at Chi beach club, tourists lie on couches puffing ready-rolled joints and munching pizzas topped with green cannabis leaves. On Instagram, the Green Shop Samui offers a marijuana menu of fantastically named buds: Truffle Cream, Banana Kush and Sour Diesel, alongside hemp cookies and cannabis herbal soap.

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Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss facing Tory members in Leeds for first official leadership hustings – UK politics live

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Leadership rivals bid to win members’ support in foreign secretary’s home town

Drug-related deaths in Scotland fell by nine in 2021, according to the latest figures released by National Records of Scotland, the first decrease since 2013 but falling well short of the significant reduction that campaigners are calling for.

The latest figure of 1,330 is still the second highest annual total on record, and Scotland continues to have by far the highest drug death rate recorded by any country in Europe and five times the rate in England.

We’ve had a raft of reports, policies and strategies that say what needs to change, and families are more likely to be included round the table, but it’s much harder to track their influence on the ground. We don’t understand what’s getting in the way of good words becoming good deeds.

1,330 of our fellow Scots have died entirely preventable deaths and we should not be celebrating this as an achievement ... The solutions are no secret. We need action, not reports with recommendations that are never implemented.

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