Drug checking services have quietly become one of the most accepted tools in how society now handles illegal drug use. A sample goes in. A result comes out. Somewhere in that exchange, a seller learns whether they cut the batch correctly, and a buyer learns whether tonight’s supply is roughly what it claims to be. […]
Drug Checking Services Are Making Getting High ‘Feel’ Safer, Not Smarter Read More »
A habit that millions of people consider harmless could be quietly raising the odds of a heart attack. A major new review, published in The American Journal of Medicine, has pulled together years of research on cannabis use and heart attack risk, and the picture it paints is far from reassuring, especially for younger adults
Cannabis Linked to Rising Heart Attack Cases in Young, Healthy Adults Read More »
Overview Recent human evidence adds weight to longstanding concerns that cannabis use during pregnancy can interfere with foetal brain development in biologically meaningful ways. The 2026 study by Ugartemendia and colleagues links prenatal cannabis exposure with altered cannabinoid signalling, altered dopamine-related signalling, and shifts in regulatory microRNAs in the developing human brain, with stronger effects
Policy brief: Prenatal Cannabis Exposure and Foetal Neurodevelopment Read More »
Australia ran the most successful anti-smoking campaign the world had ever seen. Not one of the most successful, the most successful. We reduced daily tobacco consumption from around 52 per cent of all Australians aged 16 and over in the late 1940s down to around 13 per cent just a few years ago. That is
Harm Reduction Policy Built Australia’s Tobacco Black Market Read More »
INTRODUCTION: A Crisis Hiding In Plain Sight Two numbers define the scale of the problem. In the United States alone, more than 100,000 people die from opioid-related overdoses every year. Among 15-year-olds in England, 44 per cent have been offered drugs and nearly a quarter have used them. These figures represent the downstream consequences of
Australia ran the most successful anti-smoking campaign the world had ever seen. Not one of the most successful, the most successful. We reduced daily tobacco consumption from around 52 per cent of all Australians aged 16 and over in the late 1940s down to around 13 per cent just a few years ago. That is
How “Harm Reduction” Politics Helped Build Australia’s Tobacco Black Market Read More »
Synthetic opioids are changing overdose statistics worldwide. Cannabis legalisation has shifted public views on risk, even as potency keeps climbing. Vaping has introduced a new generation to nicotine dependence, often through products that look harmless. Amid these shifts, we keep losing sight of one principle: drug use is not inevitable. It is a preventable behaviour
Prevention, Not Permission: Why Justice and Public Health Must Realign on Drug Policy Read More »
As Vietnam launches its toughest anti-drug campaign yet, it is choosing its model. And it isn’t the one its neighbour just abandoned. Through June, Vietnam ran its 2026 Anti-Drug Action Month under a blunt national theme: a shared determination to build a drug-free commune. Provincial police forces launched simultaneous high-intensity operations to suppress drug crime
Vietnam’s New Anti-Drug Campaign: More Like Japan and Singapore, Less Like Thailand Read More »
A New York Times podcast on the global drug crisis raises urgent concerns, but leaves the most important questions unasked. There is something almost cinematic about the way The New York Times framed its recent investigation into the synthetic drugs crisis. A mysterious death in a Chicago jail. A criminal investigator who says “keister” instead
Synthetic Drugs Crisis: The Prevention Questions Nobody Asked Read More »
National Tragedy Triggers Immediate Tobacco and Cannabis Cravings, New Research Finds Collective Trauma and Substance Cravings: The Reflexive Response Nobody Talks About When a national tragedy unfolds, the psychological fallout runs far deeper than grief or anxiety. New research in the Journal of Health Psychology shows that collective trauma and substance cravings are directly linked. Regular tobacco
National Tragedy Triggers Immediate Tobacco and Cannabis Cravings, New Research Finds Read More »
