This week’s drug news tells a clear story: the UK’s substance use landscape is becoming more complex, more visible, and harder to detect. For workplace safety teams, that’s a problem that demands attention.
The Ketamine Crisis Is Real
If you needed evidence that ketamine is no longer a niche club drug, this week provided it. An Essex rehab facility revealed that ketamine admissions have more than doubled this year, already surpassing the entire 2024 total. The same story is playing out across the country.
What makes this particularly troubling for employers isn’t just the scale – it’s the lack of awareness. The government launched a new frank campaign specifically targeting young people’s misunderstanding of ketamine’s risks, highlighting memory problems, hallucinations, dissociation, and long-term physical complications. One Lancashire woman’s story illustrates the problem perfectly: at 27, she’s awaiting a potential bladder transplant after beginning ketamine use at age 17 – consequences she didn’t understand at the time.
Ketamine detection should now be a standard part of workplace testing protocols. The issue isn’t just recreational use – it’s the drug’s prevalence among young workers who genuinely don’t grasp the implications.
New Substances, Same Old Detection Problem
Alongside ketamine, a more insidious trend is emerging globally. Researchers are warning about rising sales of nitazenes, a potent class of synthetic opioids. The concern intensified when these substances were found in teddy bear-shaped pills in Australia, linked to at least one death.
The problem is compounded by counterfeits. The government warned this week that young people face risks from counterfeit medicines and adulterated THC vapes – substances that standard testing may not detect reliably.
For employers, this raises a critical question: are your testing protocols sophisticated enough? Workplace drug screening hasn’t kept pace with the evolving market. Opioid testing now needs to account for synthetics that don’t show up on basic panels.
Why Elderly Workers Are at Risk
Here’s something that won’t make headlines in most workplaces but absolutely should. Overdose deaths among those aged 65 and older from fentanyl mixed with stimulants have surged 9,000% in just eight years. This isn’t just a street drug problem – it reflects how fentanyl and other synthetic opioids have penetrated prescription networks.
If your workforce includes older employees taking pain medication, particularly those with access to their own or colleagues’ prescriptions, this matters. Prescription opioid misuse isn’t typically captured in standard workplace testing unless specifically screened.
Young People, Cannabis, and Mental Health
On the cannabis front, new research released this week adds weight to a growing concern. A large genetic study has linked cannabis use to psychiatric, cognitive, and physical health problems. More troublingly, over one in five young adults now use cannabis or alcohol to help them sleep – essentially self-medicating for sleep disorders using substances that may worsen underlying conditions.
What’s particularly striking is that LGBTQ+ adolescents face significantly higher rates of mental health challenges and substance use compared to their peers. Cannabis testing in younger workforces needs to account for the fact that use often masks untreated mental health conditions rather than being purely recreational.
Alcohol Policy Shifts Coming Your Way
The alcohol conversation is shifting rapidly. A police chief criticised government plans to extend pub hours this week, warning it could lead to more drink-related serious violence and health problems. At the same time, documents reveal alcohol industry campaigns to delay Ireland’s world-first health labels with cancer warnings – pushing the implementation back to 2028.
For employers, extended trading hours mean extended exposure risk. If your workplace permits alcohol at events or operates hospitality, the compliance landscape is changing. Workplace alcohol testing isn’t common, but research on GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic potentially slowing alcohol absorption suggests the conversation is evolving beyond simple abstinence messaging.
The Detection Gap Nobody’s Talking About
Perhaps the most damning finding of the week came quietly. One in four hepatologists in the United States screened positive for unhealthy alcohol use – a sobering statistic. Even more striking is that US early adult mortality is significantly higher than in comparable wealthy nations, a gap that’s only widened over the past 15 years.
But here’s the real problem: AI analysis of electronic health records found that amongst 133,000 US primary care patients, just 820 were identified as problem drinkers by standard markers – but artificial intelligence flagged another 47,514 as problematic in the same records. We’re missing the vast majority of problem users – including those in safety-sensitive roles.
This is why saliva drug testing and urine drug testing remain essential, but they’re not enough on their own. You need a screening protocol that accounts for modern substance use patterns.
What Should Employers Do?
First: Review your testing panels. Standard five-drug screens won’t catch ketamine, nitazenes, or designer opioids. Ensure your provider offers expanded opioid panels and synthetic substance screening.
Second: Acknowledge the demographic shift. Ketamine isn’t just a club drug anymore – it’s affecting rehabilitation centres. Cannabis use correlates with untreated mental health conditions, particularly in vulnerable groups. Your policy should account for harm reduction, not just punishment.
Third: Train your managers. The complexity of substance use issues demands more than slogans. One-dimensional approaches simply don’t work.
Fourth: Consider your alcohol policy. Changing licensing laws and emerging research on sleep-use and age-related risks suggest employers need updated guidance, particularly around event management and afterwork socialising.
The substance landscape has changed fundamentally. Workplace testing can’t remain static. If you’re still working with generic screening protocols from five years ago, you’re missing the real risks – and missing the workers who need support most.
ZoomTesting provides sophisticated, up-to-date drug and alcohol testing that reflects the current UK substance landscape. We test for emerging drugs, offer workplace consultancy on policy design, and help employers balance safety with genuine care for their workforce. Whether you need single tests or comprehensive programme management, our team understands the real-world complications that this week’s news reveals.
Get in touch to discuss your current testing strategy. The week’s news should be a wake-up call – make sure your workplace is prepared.
Photo by Anthony Cunningham for Zoom Testing
