Introduction

This chapter aims to begin the process of exploring the impact of COVID-19 on drug trends and markets in the United Kingdom (UK). It is too early to say what the full impact will be and what the legacy will be for alcohol and other drugs use. What we can assume, however, is that if national lockdowns and reduced opportunities for social drug and alcohol use have not impacted in any significant way on harmful consumption, then the trends witnessed over recent years will likely be continued and even magnified under the conditions of the pandemic. In this chapter, we start to piece together some of the key changes impacting on drug markets in the UK (with a particular focus on England) by triangulating data from a range of sources and interspersing this with some theoretical insights. We do this by considering emerging drug trends in relation to COVID-19, looking for points of continuity and change in the issues that preoccupied drug policy and practice over previous years. In doing so, we take a lead from the interim findings of the Releasesponsored survey, published in Drugs in the time of COVID (Aldrdige et al, 2021), but we seek to embellish the key findings from this report by drawing on a range of other sources and targeted surveys and other research. We also pursue separate lines of investigation where necessary.

Overall, we consider the impact of the pandemic on supply, but focusing more on changes in drug availability. We look at how drug distribution has been impacted by the responses to the pandemic (as well as specific responses to the drug issue). Moving on, we consider the impact of the pandemic on alcohol, noting some overlaps with the issues around other drugs. Finally, we explore the impact of the pandemic on drug harms. This is, at this stage, more speculative as the longer-term harms associated with the pandemic and drug use will only become apparent in time.

COVID-19 has altered life in ways that were once unimaginable. Over the course of the pandemic, there have been unprecedented restrictions placed on daily life, meaning that digital delivery has come to the fore of all kinds of activity, whether it be education and learning in schools, colleges and universities, the delivery of a range of public services or hospitality.