Alcohol and Drugs

We offer several resources at Newcastle University and in the wider community where you can get further information and support.

We provide free, confidential support to you if you're concerned about your own drug use or the drug use of other students via our Student Health and Wellbeing Service. Our support can include:

• helping you register with a doctor
• informal pastoral support via our Listening Support Service
• ongoing counselling
• helping you access specialist external support services

Contact the Student Health and Wellbeing team.

Students' Union

Alternatively, you could talk to your Students’ Union (NUSU). NUSU has its own Students for Sensible Drugs Policy Society that any student can join. This is a completely student-led society that promotes safe drug use across campus, providing information and directions to external services for anyone in need.

NTaR

NUSU has also partnered with Newcastle Treatment and Recovery (NTaR) to offer a free, confidential space to chat and get support for concerns about drug or alcohol use. All of our students can use this free, non-judgmental service. You can email CDC.union@ncl.ac.uk for more information.

If you feel comfortable, you could speak to your friend about your concerns. But we know this isn't always easy to address. You can find advice on speaking directly to your friend at Talk to Frank.

For further support from us, you can make an appointment with the Student Advice Centre.

If the police carry out an investigation into illegal drugs in your accommodation, they may need to speak to all occupants. But don't worry - you won't get into trouble just because you live in that house, regardless of the course you're studying.

If you're concerned about drug use in your house, you can speak to Student Progress or our Student Advice Centre.

Possession of drugs is a criminal offence. Each incident of possession is taken on its merits and there may be situations where it might not be appropriate to report possession to the police - for example, where wellbeing concerns outweigh other considerations.

We generally don't report cases of simple possession and other drug offences to the police, but we deal with them under our disciplinary procedures.

The police do have stop and search powers in relation to drugs per s.23 Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, which includes inside student accommodation. An officer needs to have reasonable grounds to suspect you possess illegal drugs in order to conduct a search under this power.

The residences team need access to your bedroom to complete termly room checks. This includes checking that your room meets our standards of cleanliness and hygiene, along with health and safety checks. We'll give you seven days' advanced notice.

We might also access your room to complete any repairs you've requested. If you're not home at the time, we'll leave a card advising that we've visited. As we're responding to your request, we'll complete the repair in line with our published repair timescales.

There are some occasions when we might require access without giving notice. This may be for a welfare check, for example, if you've been in hospital for an injury. Security colleagues or our residences team might also need access to your room in emergency situations such as fire, flood, loss of power or risk to life.

The NUSU bar and events space is a licensed venue, and the licence holder must abide by the conditions of that licence. If security or staff find drugs during a routine search or incident, we're legally obliged to inform the police and retain the individual on-site.

Yes, this policy applies to all illicit substances, including those commonly known as ‘legal highs’.

We and NUSU encourage all our students to get involved with volunteering and shaping our policies and procedures. NUSU has its own Students for Sensible Drugs Policy (SSDP) society that you could join, or you could get more involved through the central NUSU campaigns and officer team.

The NUSU Student Advice Centre has specialist housing advisers that can help with any housing issue, including eviction. You can book an appointment for more support.

Our support is free and confidential. We would only ever talk to your family and tutors if there was a serious and/or life-threatening concern that could only be mitigated by contacting your parents and/or tutor.

The Students’ Union is separate from the university, so you can talk to officers, the advice centre or other relevant staff members of NUSU without this information getting back to the university. The only exception to this would be if there was an immediate danger of harm to yourself or others that could only be mitigated by contacting the university.

We'll investigate all reports made to us in line with our student disciplinary procedure, whether that's at Level 1 (locally, e.g. by Accommodation Services) or Level 2 (formally by the Student Progress Service).  

We'll consider all cases on their individual merit and circumstances, and we'll only apply appropriate sanctions where we believe misconduct has occurred. 

We'll deal with repeated or serious incidents (e.g., dealing drugs) particularly seriously.

The simple answer is no. It's important to remember the safest way to do drugs is to not do them at all. But if you're going to take drugs, you need to know how to reduce their potential harm.

Our drug test kit results don't mean the drug is safe to consume. They don't test for the strength, potency, or concentration of a drug, and therefore can't completely eliminate harm.

The kits work by identifying if the drug has been cut or mixed with another potentially harmful or even lethal substance. They also help you understand if the drug you have is the one you bought, rather than a more dangerous substance.

Mixing drugs with alcohol or other drugs, or taking high doses, are the most common causes of drug-related harm or fatalities.

NUSU information and support on harm reduction