Understanding the main drug groups in family proceedings

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A free and practical guide for family law professionals

Marie Law, Director of Toxicology at AlphaBiolabs, explores the growing complexity of drug misuse in family proceedings and why a clearer understanding of the main drug groups is essential for legal professionals.

However, the substance abuse landscape is no longer confined to heroin, cocaine, and cannabis. Toxicology laboratories are seeing an increase in controlled prescription drug misuse, the continued emergence of New Psychoactive Substances (NPS), and a marked rise in poly-drug use.

In addition, street drugs are increasingly adulterated or contaminated, meaning individuals may be unaware of the full range of substances they have consumed, many of which fall outside standard drug testing panels and may not be detected unless specifically requested.

For legal practitioners, it is no longer enough to know whether someone has taken a drug. Understanding what that drug is, how it is classified, and how it is typically used is equally important.

Legislative classifications

In family cases, how a substance is classified under UK law can have a real bearing on how risk is assessed and how evidence is framed.

• The principal legislative framework remains the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (MDA), which categorises controlled drugs as Class A, B or C according to their assessed harm.
• The Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 (PSA) was introduced to address the proliferation of so-called ‘legal highs’, synthetic substances designed to mimic the effects of controlled drugs.
• The Human Medicines Regulations 2012 govern prescription-only medicines that are not controlled under the MDA but may still be subject to misuse.

Importantly, legal status does not necessarily reflect safeguarding risk. A substance may be lawfully prescribed, yet misused in a manner that impairs cognition, behaviour, or parenting capacity.

Key drug groups now appearing in family cases

While traditional illicit drugs remain relevant, family practitioners are increasingly encountering a broader spectrum of substances in legally-instructed testing:

• Opioids feature prominently, ranging from heroin to prescribed medications such as methadone, buprenorphine and fentanyl. Although many of these drugs have legitimate therapeutic roles (e.g. opioid substitution therapy, pain management), misuse carries significant risks.
• Cannabinoids now extend beyond cannabis to include synthetic variants such as ‘Spice’, often associated with unpredictable behavioural effects.
• Hallucinogens including ketamine are appearing more frequently.

We are also seeing increasing misuse of prescription-only medications including anticonvulsants like gabapentin and pregabalin, antidepressants, antipsychotics, and anabolic steroids.

These substances may be lawfully prescribed, yet excessive or non-prescribed use can contribute to mood instability, cognitive impairment, or behavioural volatility.