Posted on: 6 November 2025
Since opening in 2010, CNWL’s Club Drug Clinic has helped more than 1,500 people and become a key reference point for services across the UK.
The clinic supports people using drugs such as ketamine, gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB), methamphetamine, hallucinogens and prescription medications. When it began, most services were focused on heroin and crack cocaine, and people felt unsure where to turn.
A different kind of service
Professor Owen Bowden-Jones, the leading addiction specialist who founded the clinic, said the landscape was changing when the service began.
“In 2010, the story was legal highs,” he said. “People were turning up in A&E looking very unwell, and staff didn’t know what they had taken. We were also hearing whispers about chemsex. Traditional services were not set up for this.”
The clinic’s team works intensively with a small group of service users. Around 65 to 70 percent complete treatment successfully - almost double the national average for non-opiate drug treatment.
Most people who come to the clinic are in their late 20s to early 40s - working professionals who’ve never used drug treatment services before. Many are clubbers and men who have sex with men (MSM), and a lot report experiences involving chemsex.
Chemsex refers to using drugs to enhance or prolong sexual activity. Over the past decade, the use of chems has risen across the UK, and chemsex has been linked to higher rates of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. Staff described the early years as a “public health disaster”.
What often starts as recreational drug use spills into other areas of life, and people come to the clinic asking for help not just with drugs but with wider problems at home or work.
“We learned fast,” said Owen. “We had to understand new drugs and new patterns of use.”
Reaching people who would not otherwise seek help
The clinic also takes its work out into the community. Staff visit night-time venues, and for the past 10 years they’ve been based in sexual health clinics too. That approach has reached people who might never have come forward otherwise. And by offering sexual health screening at the Club Drug Clinic, people can get support in one place.
Will Davis, Service Manager, said the service feels different to a mainstream drug clinic.
“Our service is discreet and doesn’t feel like a drug and alcohol service,” he said. “You see people from all walks of life. There are no barriers to coming in.”
The team hasn’t just focused on clinical work. They created the NEPTUNE guidance and e-learning on club drugs, along with the ATOMIC app for prescription medication misuse. The NEPTUNE website has an estimated 100,000 visits from countries around the world, and more than 43,000 people have completed the e-learning so far.
The team also runs the Changing Unwanted BEhaviour (CUBE) Clinic based at University College London. It’s for students who want support with alcohol or drug use, as well as other addictive behaviours such as gaming and pornography.
People supported by the clinic also spoke at the anniversary events.
Nick, a volunteer and peer support worker, shared his journey from using drugs to training as a mental health nurse. “I applied to university in 2022 and I’m now in my final year,” he said. “I hope to return to work in the service that helped me.”
Cheryl, who was referred through eating disorder services, now uses her lived experience to support others.
“What matters is not turning people away,” she said. “I went to services before and felt shut out. There should be no wrong door. You meet people where they are.”
The team says its strength comes from working closely with the communities it supports.
Becky Harris, Area Manager for CNWL’s Addictions services, and with the clinic from day one, said:
"We care about the people we work with. This is nothing if not a team effort, and the service only exists because people trusted us.”
