Substance abuse

A pharmacy technician has been removed from the register after he “took advantage” of a teenager who he messaged on Snapchat and gave cannabis “to facilitate the offence of rape”, the regulator has revealed.

Pharmacy technicians, students and pharmacists are among those who are no longer free to practise tattooing or body piercing without a licence, while exemptions around take-home naloxone have expanded.

A 78-year-old woman has overdosed after being given excess diazepam and codeine she was “addicted to” ahead of an Easter bank holiday weekend, a coroner has found.

A 27-year-old man has been jailed for 12 months for cultivating cannabis plants in a former Lloydspharmacy in Pembroke with an estimated street value of up to £500,000.

Pharmacies in Devon are taking part in a new pilot service that aims to reduce the number of drug-related deaths in the county and trains staff to recognise and respond to the “symptoms of opioid overdose”.

The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has found that the fitness to practise (FtP) of a pharmacist who “crashed” her company Citroen Berlingo van after drinking “six large drinks of her husband’s home brew” is “no longer impaired”.

A 27-year-old man has pleaded guilty of producing cannabis after nearly 600 plants were found at an old pharmacy building in Pembroke last week, local police have revealed.

A pharmacy in Mexico owned by a leading Sinaloa cartel family is facing sanctions, according to the US government.

A “brazen” pharmacy technician has been suspended after telling his workplace that he was late to work because he had “used a line of cocaine”. 

A “high-strength veterinary sedative” and 21 other “dangerous” drugs will be banned by the government, it has announced.