RESEARCH ALERT
Some vapes use added chemicals to create a cold or icy feeling. New research has raised concerns about three of them: WS-23, WS-3 and WS-5. We do not yet know how common they are in Wales.
PREVENTION
Building a Prevention Nation
Prevention means acting earlier, before smoking, harmful alcohol use, drug dependence or gambling harms become more deeply rooted. Our work connects policy, services, communities and lived experience to build a more joined-up response across Wales.
Why Wales needs a joined-up approach
Smoking, hazardous alcohol use, drug dependence and gambling harms can overlap in the same lives and communities. Yet policy, funding and support are often organised separately.
Our prevention work is built around a simple principle: people do not experience these harms in neat categories, so prevention and support should not be organised that way either.
Prevention before crisis
Act earlier, reduce exposure to harm and create healthier conditions before dependence becomes established.
Support that sees the whole person
Connect services and referral routes so people with overlapping needs are not pushed through separate systems.
Four priorities for a Prevention Nation
Our policy briefing sets out four actions for a more coherent national response to addiction and dependence in Wales.
1. A national framework
Bring tobacco, alcohol, drugs and gambling into one coherent policy and accountability framework with shared outcomes and lived experience at its heart.
2. One front door for support
Create joined-up pathways so people receive a holistic assessment and connected support wherever they first ask for help.
3. A prevention-ready workforce
Build shared skills, multi-disciplinary working and co-produced training across services dealing with overlapping harms.
4. Protection from commercial harm
Act on marketing, product design, availability and lobbying across tobacco, alcohol and gambling, with transparent and evidence-led public health policy.
What success would look like
- Fewer people starting to smoke, drink at harmful levels, use drugs or experience gambling harms.
- People with multiple needs getting timely, person-centred and co-produced support through a joined-up system.
- Narrower health inequalities, with the biggest gains in Wales’s most deprived communities.
- Less pressure on health and care services through earlier prevention and better sustained recovery.
From policy to action
ASH Wales is working with partners, professionals and communities to turn prevention into practical change. Explore the network, evidence and early-intervention work supporting this agenda across Wales.