So, a new year, and a return for me to the academic world after a long and difficult period of illness. I recovered only with the unwavering support of friends, family, Lancaster University’s Department of Sociology colleagues and fantastic NHS services and charities in Manchester, UK.

Over the coming year I will be undertaking my usual work on my ongoing research interests of clubbing and club drug use, including a project on post-rave club culture afterparties, about which I gave a talk at the Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice, School of Law, University of Manchester.

However, alongside the usual fun and frolics, I am doing something a little different this year, by looking specifically at one ‘family’ of prescription medicines – namely benzodiazapines – and their research chemical equivalents, or what we might call ‘blag benzos’.

Sadly, these benzo analogues remain easily available online, and we have seen a recent increase in deaths related to their use: Benzodiazapine-related deaths rise in the UK