The Green victory shows what is needed to beat Reform: a positive message of hope and relentless door-to-door campaigning.

Anyone who's suffered at the hands of Reviewer #2 may enjoy this. www.linkedin.com/posts/alex-s...

England are playing like a bunch of amateurs #ENGvIRE

A retired British primary school administrator with a British passport and a valid visa was shackled, chained and detained for six weeks by ICE www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

New paper on "Impact of Scotland's first Virtual Consumption app". Thanks @catrionamath.bsky.social @hadidf.bsky.social for support and guidance. Thanks @sheffielduni.bsky.social for Open Access publishing. @profalexstevens.bsky.social for continuing supervision and support. doi.org/10.1186/s129...

New on Talking Drugs: www.talkingdrugs.org/how-internat... Summary of our recent article on how and why consensus fractured at the 2024 Commission on Narcotic Drugs.

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS for #LEPH2026 Abstracts should address innovative research, policy development, or practice-based initiatives that contribute to safer, healthier communities and relate to the conference’s themes: leph2026.org @vp-centre.bsky.social

A risk of overselling decriminalisation, by saying that it will reduce drug deaths, is that it may be reversed if it doesn't appear to do so.

Some good news from Portugal www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...

The number of people dying in prisons in England and Wales has risen to the highest level on record, official data reveal. Prisons recorded 394 deaths in 2025 – a 15% increase on the previous year. https://howardleague.org/news/revealed-the-rising-death-toll-in-prisons-in-england-and-wales/

Our new paper on Digital Harm Reduction and "Here4U Scotland app" from lead author @hadidf.bsky.social. Always a privilege to work and learn from @hadidf.bsky.social and @catrionamath.bsky.social 🙏. Thanks to @profalexstevens.bsky.social for ongoing PhD support 🙏 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Thanks to Dr James Densley for telling it like it is.

Doors and gates left open. Men spending 23 hours a day in their cells. High levels of self-harm, violence and use of force with batons. Cancelled family visits. Not an encouraging start for England's newest prison: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn9z81r18xvo

There's lots to unpack in this article, with further details of what will be in the policing white paper next week... www.lbc.co.uk/article/mini...

Once more, I am shouting into the void: the stupid, off-hand things that Trump says are NOT NEWS. #wato

US sec of state Marco Rubio, May 2025: “Today, the US welcomed the historic agreement [on Chagos]. Following a comprehensive interagency review, the Trump Administration determined that this agreement secures the long-term, stable, and effective operation” of the base at Diego Garcia.

And now we're arguing over a completely meaningless phrase.

The Jenrick defection is a classic example of a story that the broadcast media will devote hours to, but nobody outside Westminster cares about.

Just listening to Curtis Mayfield's 'Pusherman' played on BBC Radio 6. They censored the words 'coke', 'weed', and the N word, but not the J word. #drugstigma

"Battle Hymn of the Republic" is not a song to be taken on lightly ... but in light of this New Year Trumpian news onslaught, we're sharing this adaptation, called "Battle Hymn of the Empire" - as Trump goes marching on, and dragging us all back to the nineteenth century. youtu.be/8saU0WeocP0

The UK government should not ban X. It should just stop using it. And so should everyone else.

Evidence from British Columbia shows decriminalisation reduced police interference with access to harm reduction — a key public health objective. Rolling it back didn’t correct failure. It reversed progress. Full study:

Trump on why he pardoned notorious drug trafficker Juan Hernandez: “It was a Biden set up. Take any country you want. If someone sells drugs in that country, that doesn’t mean you arrest the president and put him in jail for the rest of his life.”

The QS world university rankings game is getting ever more ridiculous. I am now getting emails from universities I have never heard of, begging me to big them up.

Interesting estimate of the number of people in the USA who inject drugs, with substantial fall since 2018. Our estimates in the UK are years out of date.

After Canada legalized cannabis, police caught more drunk drivers

Please can we stop using journal rankings?

Farage told to apologise for his racism www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Latest monthly visa application figures are out. Skilled workers? Still dropping. Health & care workers? Still dropping. Slow clap.

"Migrants who came to the UK on skilled work visas in 2022-23 will make a net contribution of £47bn to the public finances over their lifetime, according to new estimates from the government’s Migration Advisory Committee." Not surprising, but some observations (1/n) www.ft.com/content/10da...

How and why consensus fractured at the 2024 session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs: an exploratory study of international drug policy constellations using social network analysis and qualitative comparative analysis. @deppjournal.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... £0 #OA

Can we crowd fund a defamation case against Farage (and Tice) for calling his accusers liars? www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Not hard to slow HIV spread among/from people who inject drugs. 1 start needle syringe programs early, expand rapidly to scale; 2 expand & liberalise drug treatment esp opioid substitution; 3 provide peer based information to PWIDs; 4 establish organisations run by & for PWIDs @aivl.bsky.social

On #WorldAIDSDay, remember that people are still catching HIV from sharing injecting equipment. And this can be prevented. #HarmReduction

Comically self-destructive www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Great news for very many families.

Great news - The deadline for the 2026 Conference of the International Society for the Study of #DrugPolicy in Perth Australia has been extended to 15 December. 🦘 To submit you abstracts go to issdp.org

New: Three new ex-pupils come forward, on the record, to say Farage's racism as a teenager was targeted, persistent and nasty. Farage has denied targeting any individuals - but two of the men tell us they recall Farage abusing Peter Ettedgui. w/ Dan Boffey, @drblacklock.bsky.social

I was at Nigel Farage's sister school in the 1980s, with several Jewish pupils. Taunting them about the holocaust was not part of our 'banter'.

Farage is, and always was, a racist.

The SSA is now accepting applications for full-time PhD studentships. Funding will include a stipend (living allowance), tuition fees, and research and training costs. Find out how to apply: tinyurl.com/y3n5dvk2

ISSDP is running a panel at the #OC24 Conference on Global Organized Crime on “Advancing global drug market analysis.” Chaired by Professor Peter Reuter and featuring leading #DrugMarket and #DrugPolicy scholars. Please join us: oc24.heysummit.com/talks/advanc...

Idea for the next King's Speech: a law that forces rail operators to accept each other's tickets in cases of delays.

I blame the people who voted for Johnson, especially the Tory MPs who elected him as their leader, despite knowing he was an incompetent liar.

Fall in opioid deaths in BC is more likely down to a shift from injection to inhalation than policing.

NEW DATA: This briefing provides updates to key data from our flagship report, The Global State of Harm Reduction. The update also summarises funding and policy developments since the 2024 report.

Joined the running picked today with @ucu.org.uk @sheffielduni.bsky.social. Oldest (and slowest) there. It takes real #solidarity to run up Sheffield hills to the management school.

Whatever the charge, the death penalty is wrong. #Bangladesh

Solidarity on the @ucu.org.uk picked line @sheffielduni.bsky.social School of Law. No to compulsory redundancies!

📣 Trinity College Dublin is hiring 2 #tenuretrack Assistant Professors in Sociology. 👉 Environmental Sociology. Closing Dec 1 www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPH703/a... 👉 Gender and Sexuality. Closing Dec 2 www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPI055/a... @tcdsociology.bsky.social @isa-rc28.bsky.social @eaps.bsky.social