Part 4: Building Recovery Capital in 2026

Recovery capital is the sum total of resources — internal and external — that a person can draw on to initiate and sustain recovery. It includes physical health, mental health, relationships, housing, employment, education, community connections, and a sense of purpose. The more recovery capital you have, the more resilient your recovery becomes. The idea […]

Part 3: Young People and New Substances

Generation Z faces a substance landscape that is almost unrecognisable from even ten years ago. Novel psychoactive substances appear faster than they can be classified. Vaping has normalised nicotine use among people who would never have smoked cigarettes. Ketamine has moved from veterinary medicine to weekend essential. And the boundary between recreational use and clinical […]

Part 2: Recovery in the Gig Economy

The traditional advice for early recovery quietly assumes a traditional life: a nine-to-five job, a fixed schedule, weekday evenings free for meetings. For the growing number of people working in the gig economy — zero-hours contracts, freelance work, delivery and platform work, shift patterns that change from one week to the next — that advice […]

Part 1: Digital Dealers and Online Triggers

The dark web has transformed the drug trade in ways that would astonish anyone who remembers the days of meeting a dealer on a street corner. Today, substances arrive in plain packaging through the letterbox. Reviews and ratings guide purchases. Customer service exists. It is Amazon for addiction, and it operates with a terrifying efficiency. […]