Online access to banned drugs

69 items 1 source

Accessibility of banned dangerous drugs (e.g., Dinitrophenol) online and the influence of social media in promoting their use.

Cross-Source Insight

Online access to banned drugs has been flagged across 1 independent accountability source:

69 PFD reports

This theme has been identified in one data source. As more data is added, cross-references may emerge.

Heidi Williams
13 Jan 2026 · Northamptonshire
Concerns: Evidence showed the deceased ordered numerous tablets from an individual linked to known addresses, but Essex Police have refused Northamptonshire Police's request to investigate the matter.
Response: Essex Police has accepted the concerns and is now actively investigating the alleged drug supply issues through its Serious Violence Unit, with early analysis indicating a complex, multi-force, and potentially …
Responded
Owen Donnelly
17 Oct 2025 · Manchester West
Concerns: Easy online access to information for constructing weapons, currently not illegal to possess, creates a real risk due to the proliferation of unlicensed weapons while legislation is pending.
Response: The Home Office confirms that the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, expected to achieve Royal Assent by December, will make it a criminal offence to import, make, adapt, supply, …
Responded
Leo Barber
09 Oct 2025 · South London
Concerns: Vulnerable children can access online suicide material, and international service providers’ jurisdictional stance can obstruct coronial investigations, hindering efforts to prevent future deaths.
Response: Google details its existing safety measures for suicide and self-harm content on Google Search and notes that the report did not suggest the content was found via their search engine. …
Responded
Andrew Kenward
09 Jul 2025 · Surrey
Concerns: There is no central monitoring for sodium nitrite poisoning, and high-purity sodium nitrite can be easily imported and purchased in lethal quantities without regulation or consideration for dilution, posing significant risk.
Responded
Sally Burr
13 Jun 2025 · West Sussex, Brighton and Hove
Concerns: Detained mental health patients can exploit mobile internet access to research self-harm methods, as staff lack effective technical means to monitor or control usage, despite revised policies.
Responded
Frederick Ireland-Rose
06 Jun 2025 · Inner North London
Concerns: Cannabinoid vape users are unaware of the significant and variable risk of nitazene adulteration in vaping fluids and lack access to Naloxone, posing a high overdose risk.
Responded
Shaun Bass
23 May 2025 · Manchester West
Concerns: Home Office guidance for selling reportable poisons fails to adequately advise online sellers on identifying purchases for self-harm, leading vendors to unknowingly facilitate suicides. Additionally, dangerous websites promoting suicide methods and poison sourcing are readily accessible.
Responded
Samuel Dickenson
23 May 2025 · Manchester West
Concerns: Home Office guidance for selling reportable poisons fails to adequately advise online sellers on identifying purchases for self-harm, leading vendors to unknowingly facilitate suicides. Additionally, dangerous websites promoting suicide methods and poison sourcing are readily accessible.
Responded
Matthew O’Reilly
23 May 2025 · Manchester West
Concerns: Home Office guidance for selling reportable poisons fails to adequately advise online sellers on identifying purchases for self-harm, leading vendors to unknowingly facilitate suicides. Additionally, dangerous websites promoting suicide methods and poison sourcing are readily accessible.
Responded
Andrew Brown
23 May 2025 · Manchester West
Concerns: Home Office guidance for selling reportable poisons fails to adequately advise online sellers on identifying purchases for self-harm, leading vendors to unknowingly facilitate suicides. Additionally, dangerous websites promoting suicide methods and poison sourcing are readily accessible.
Responded
William Armstrong
23 May 2025 · Manchester West
Concerns: Home Office guidance for selling reportable poisons fails to adequately advise online sellers on identifying purchases for self-harm, leading vendors to unknowingly facilitate suicides. Additionally, dangerous websites promoting suicide methods and poison sourcing are readily accessible.
Overdue
Kelly Walsh
23 May 2025 · Manchester West
Concerns: Home Office guidance for selling reportable poisons fails to adequately advise online sellers on identifying purchases for self-harm, leading vendors to unknowingly facilitate suicides. Additionally, dangerous websites promoting suicide methods and poison sourcing are readily accessible.
Overdue
Chantelle Williams
23 May 2025 · Manchester West
Concerns: Home Office guidance for selling reportable poisons fails to adequately advise online sellers on identifying purchases for self-harm, leading vendors to unknowingly facilitate suicides. Additionally, dangerous websites promoting suicide methods and poison sourcing are readily accessible.
Responded
Mathew Price
23 May 2025 · Manchester West
Concerns: Home Office guidance for selling reportable poisons fails to adequately advise online sellers on identifying purchases for self-harm, leading vendors to unknowingly facilitate suicides. Additionally, dangerous websites promoting suicide methods and poison sourcing are readily accessible.
Responded
Jacqueline Potter
24 Apr 2025 · Somerset
Concerns: Families of psychiatric patients on leave are not provided with codified risk and safety plans. Furthermore, secure unit Wi-Fi lacks filters, allowing vulnerable patients access to self-harm websites, increasing suicide risk.
Responded
Christopher Brazil
23 Apr 2025 · Ceredigion
Concerns: Unregulated online pharmacies easily sell prescription-only and controlled drugs, lacking patient verification, dosage guidance, and safeguards against misuse, exposing vulnerable individuals to unsafe medications.
Responded
Rhiannon Williams
12 Mar 2025 · SWANSEA & NEATH PORT TALBOT
Concerns: Online suicide forums and social media platforms provided information on self-harm and misleading professionals, raising concerns about the adequacy of The Online Safety Act 2023 in preventing access to such harmful content.
Responded
Joshua Forsdyke
10 Jan 2025 · Inner North London
Concerns: Ketamine was easily and openly available to students, with drug dealing occurring freely within and between university student halls of residence.
Responded
Edward Barnard
21 Nov 2024 · London Inner (South)
Concerns: A vulnerable young adult illicitly obtained an animal-licensed substance for suicide, highlighting an emerging risk. Licensing bodies and veterinary societies must examine preventive measures to curb access and prevent future deaths.
Overdue
Miranda Avanzi
14 Nov 2024 · Inner North London
Concerns: The widespread and easily accessible availability of explicit, step-by-step suicide guides online, often without age verification, poses a significant risk, enabling vulnerable individuals to self-harm.
Overdue
John Ellis
14 Nov 2024 · Hampshire, Portsmouth and Southampton
Concerns: Inadequate controls and verification processes allowed a veterinary surgeon to easily access a lethal controlled drug, enabling him to misuse it for self-harm without scrutiny.
Responded
Hannah Aitken
14 Nov 2024 · Surrey
Concerns: The increasing use of for self-harm is not centrally monitored, and current legislation fails to control the import and availability of substances used for poisoning, despite known risks.
Responded
Bethany Langton
30 Jul 2024 · Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire
Concerns: The easy online availability of lethal Sodium Nitrite, combined with suppliers' unawareness of its misuse and slow removal of suicide-related online guidance, facilitates self-harm.
Overdue
Deborah Cooper
18 Jul 2024 · Wiltshire & Swindon
Concerns: A book detailing suicide methods is freely available on Amazon UK, and existing legislative frameworks, including the Suicide Act and Online Safety Act, appear ineffective in preventing its marketing and supply.
Responded
Nigel Dixon
04 Jun 2024 · Rutland and North Leicestershire
Concerns: Failures in hospital-to-community pharmacy communication allowed a patient access to morphine after cessation. Additionally, the unregulated online sale of Zopiclone in large quantities presented a significant overdose risk.
Overdue
Jonathan Shaw
25 Apr 2024 · Manchester North
Concerns: UK Border Force lacks legal powers and national guidance to effectively seize or manage consignments of substances ordered for self-harm, with no mandatory notification or welfare checks before release.
Overdue
Mary Jones
21 Mar 2024 · Cheshire
Concerns: Amazon continues to sell a "well known suicide book" which is easily accessible and quickly deliverable, despite awareness of its potential for harm and a previous coroner's intervention.
Responded
Deborah Cooper
26 Feb 2024 · Wiltshire and Swindon
Concerns: Books providing explicit instructions on methods for ending one's life are freely available on Amazon.co.uk. Concerns are raised about the marketing, supply, and lack of regulation for such publications.
Responded
Guy Scotchford
31 Jan 2024 · Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly
Concerns: An active website provides detailed instructions and direct purchasing links for substances to end one's life, posing a significant risk to vulnerable individuals.
Responded
William Helstrip
19 Jan 2024 · East Riding and Hull
Concerns: The initial police investigation failed to properly probe drug sourcing via the "Dark Web" and Royal Mail, leading to the irretrievable loss of critical, time-sensitive evidence.
Responded
Adrian Gallagher
28 Dec 2023 · Cheshire
Concerns: An online book providing explicit, step-by-step suicide instructions, including methods to avoid detection, is readily accessible with inadequate age verification, posing a significant risk to vulnerable individuals.
Responded
Kimberley Liu
21 Dec 2023 · Inner North London
Concerns: Unregulated websites facilitate dangerous, unchecked sales of prescription-only sedative medications, actively instructing customers to evade detection, which exploits vulnerable individuals and poses a suicide risk.
Responded
Chloe Macdermott
19 Dec 2023 · Inner West London
Concerns: Online forums encourage suicide by providing methods without age restrictions or help signposting, and harmful content is not effectively removed. Lethal products are also easily purchased via international online retailers and delivered to the UK without effective border controls.
Overdue
Ania Sohail
07 Feb 2023 · Manchester North
Concerns: Online prescribing lacks integrated systems to prevent over-prescription or inform GPs of dispensed medication, posing risks. Additionally, mental health care plans contained inaccuracies and staff lacked mandatory refresher training.
Responded
Gary Cooper
12 Jan 2023 · Cumbria
Concerns: The death of an individual with depression and psychosis by suicide highlights potential concerns regarding the adequacy of mental health support and intervention.
Responded
Neha Raju
14 Oct 2022 · Surrey
Concerns: Lethal substances are readily available for purchase online and delivered within the UK without safeguards to protect vulnerable individuals from making such purchases.
Responded
Edward Capovila
25 Apr 2022 · County of Cumbria
Concerns: Insufficient information regarding unusual methods of fentanyl misuse poses a significant risk of future deaths due to its potential for varied abuse.
Responded
James Forryan
18 Mar 2022 · Inner North London
Concerns: Easily accessible websites openly promote and provide guidance on suicide methods, contributing to deaths. There is a lack of sufficient regulation and enforcement against such harmful online content.
Responded
Jack Ritchie
07 Mar 2022 · South Yorkshire West
Concerns: Systemic failures in gambling regulation, inadequate warnings and information, insufficient treatment for addiction, and a lack of training for medical professionals contributed to a preventable death.
Overdue
Jamie O’Connor
21 Oct 2021 · Leicester City and South Leicestershire
Concerns: Lack of a central medication tracking system, no mandatory GP contact, and insufficient consultation processes in online prescribing platforms risk over-prescription, drug interactions, and patient harm.
Overdue
Linda Gillchrest
04 Jan 2021 · County of Surrey
Concerns: Unrestricted online access to detailed suicide instructions and the ability to purchase lethal quantities of substances without safeguards pose significant risks to vulnerable individuals.
Overdue
Lee Elliott
26 Nov 2020 · County of Cumbria
Concerns: Toxic substances are easily and cheaply obtainable online without safeguards, and are advocated on websites as a method for suicide, leading to multiple deaths.
Responded
Jason Thompson
20 Nov 2020 · County Durham and Darlington
Concerns: A website may be illegally promoting suicide methods, and a lethal substance is too easily available online under a misleading description, posing significant public safety risks.
Responded
Valdotas Gerbutavicius
25 Sep 2020 · East London
Concerns: Inadequate legislation and a lack of internet sales prohibitions allow dangerous DNP 'diet pills' to remain readily available online, leading to numerous deaths among vulnerable people.
Overdue
Jerrelle McKenzie
17 Jul 2020 · Bedfordshire and Luton
Concerns: The deceased accessed Dinitrophenol (DNP), a drug banned in the UK since 1938 due to its harmful effects, via the internet, likely influenced by social media, leading to his overdose.
Overdue
Gemma Macdonald
05 Dec 2019 · Suffolk
Concerns: The unchecked online availability of large quantities of medication, without systems to verify purchaser suitability or limit transaction amounts and frequency, poses a significant risk.
Overdue
Deborah Headspeath
18 Nov 2019 · Suffolk
Concerns: There's no unified database for tracking patient prescriptions, enabling uncoordinated medication supplies, especially from unregulated online prescribers. Advisory guidance for pharmacists on online prescriptions lacks mandatory adherence and clear sanctions.
Responded
Kristiyan Danailov
23 Sep 2019 · Dorset
Concerns: Insufficient identity checks and obstacles exist to prevent vulnerable individuals from purchasing hazardous items online, indicating a lack of industry awareness about associated risks.
Overdue
Imran Mahmood
04 Sep 2019 · Staffordshire South
Concerns: E-cigarettes in prison are being misused as heating devices for drug preparation, highlighting a significant safety risk related to both illicit drug use and potential fires.
Responded
Jennifer Lacey
24 Oct 2018 · London Inner (West)
Concerns: Concerns were raised about dangerous, addictive drugs being freely available online and prescribed by foreign doctors without patient contact or GP record access, potentially filled by UK pharmacies without adequate checks.
Overdue
Bethany Shipsey
15 Feb 2018 · Worcestershire
Concerns: The highly toxic and antidote-less drug DNP is readily available online and popular as a 'diet drug.' There is a lack of legislation making its possession or supply illegal.
Responded
Jane Powell
30 Oct 2017 · Manchester (North)
Concerns: The ease with which large quantities of prescription-only medication can be obtained over the internet poses a significant risk of future deaths.
Overdue
Anna Phillips
08 Feb 2017 · Cornwall and Isles of Scilly
Concerns: The deceased obtained a dangerous, unlicensed weight loss drug (2,4 Dinitrophenol) online, which is known to cause fatalities.
Responded
Lee Davies
29 Jun 2016 · South Wales Central
Concerns: Hostel staff lacked specific training on monitoring and safeguarding residents found after illicit drug use, instead only focusing on overdose recognition, leaving at-risk individuals unmonitored.
Responded
Darren Mindham
03 May 2016 · London South
Concerns: Pentobarbital, a Schedule 3 drug, is frequently used in suicides due to less strict controls; stricter regulation could reduce suicide rates.
Responded
Elvis Snelson
21 Jan 2016 · Manchester City
Concerns: The "legal high" acetylfentanyl, a highly potent opioid, poses significant risks due to users being unaware of its opioid nature, leading to dangerous sedation and respiratory depression.
Overdue
Arenijus Nedzelskies
13 Jan 2016 · South Lincolnshire
Concerns: Specific synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists (5F AKB-48, 5F PB-22) are not controlled substances, and the deceased's chronic misuse was not reported to the DVLA.
Overdue
Catherine Findlay
13 Oct 2015 · Manchester (West)
Concerns: Concerns about the availability and misuse of dangerous "research chemicals" like MXP, which are freely marketed online, consumed, and pose a life-threatening risk.
Overdue
Jacques Lakeman and Torin Lakeman
15 May 2015 · Manchester (West)
Concerns: Easy access to anonymous 'Dark Web' sites for unregulated illicit drugs with unknown potency and content poses a significant and ongoing risk of future deaths.
Responded
Thaker Hafid
08 May 2015 · Cardiff & the Vale of Glamorgan
Concerns: The free availability and high potency/toxicity of the unlicensed 'designer drug' Acetylfentanyl, sold over the internet, poses a significant risk of future deaths.
Overdue
Anthony Garrett
21 Apr 2015 · Manchester (West)
Concerns: Readily available and misused synthetic cannabinoids, despite warnings, are dangerous and caused a fatal cardiac event. Concerns were raised about their legal status and control.
Overdue
Jason Houghton
30 Mar 2015 · Manchester (West)
Concerns: The unregulated online supply and international importation of Class A drugs, specifically Diacetyl Morphine/Heroin in pill form via postal systems, poses a significant risk of future deaths.
Responded
Samuel Duckworth
20 Oct 2014 · London (Inner South)
Concerns: The ease of purchasing prescription-only drugs like Diazepam via the internet without medical supervision creates an ongoing risk for vulnerable individuals.
Responded
Matthew Flatman
06 Oct 2014 · Portsmouth & South East Hampshire
Concerns: The slow process of proscribing the "legal high" MDAI/Gogaine poses a fatal risk, particularly to users with cardiac problems, requiring accelerated action.
Overdue
David Giles
09 Jul 2014 · Birmingham & Solihull
Concerns: The unrestricted sale of large helium gas canisters without safety controls, coupled with readily available online suicide guidance, contributes to a concerning rise in helium-related suicides.
Responded
Victoria Meppen-Walter
27 Feb 2014 · Manchester (North)
Concerns: Concerns were raised regarding the easy online availability and regulation of chloroquine, along with the associated risks of its misuse.
Overdue
Hazel Polkinghorn
26 Feb 2014 · Central Lincolnshire
Concerns: The easy online acquisition of dangerous non-prescribed medication, like Pentobarbital, poses a significant risk of future deaths, necessitating government intervention to regulate such websites.
Overdue
Christopher Scott
27 Nov 2013 · Wiltshire & Swindon
Concerns: The 'legal high' AMT is readily available for purchase despite clear evidence of its deadly effects, raising concerns about its unregulated status and accessibility to the public.
Pending
Luke Jacob Goodwin
20 Nov 2013 · West Yorkshire (Western)
Concerns: The unrestricted sale of large helium canisters without flow control valves, combined with readily available online suicide guides, facilitates self-harm and raises serious safety concerns.
Pending