Amphetamine
speed · whizz · base
What does current UK evidence show?
WAND estimated 55% lower consumption across comparable sampled sites between early 2021 and early 2026, including a 39% fall from early 2025, but this experimental signal does not establish a fall in every locality or population.
Overview
Identity, legal classification, form and pharmacological context
- Drug category
- Stimulants
- Common names
- speed, whizz, base
- Typical forms
- Usually white or off-white powder or paste; composition and strength vary
- Routes
- Usually swallowed or snorted; injecting is less common and carries additional risks
- UK legal classification
- Class BClass A when in a preparation designed for administration by injection.Check government source ↗
- Concise pharmacology
- Amphetamine increases dopamine and noradrenaline signalling, producing stimulant effects; ordinary UK speed is commonly amphetamine sulphate, not smoked methamphetamine.
Main harms
Concise clinical and polydrug picture
Agitation, anxiety, overheating, chest pain, seizures and cardiovascular strain.
Sleep disruption, mood problems, cardiovascular harm and stimulant-related psychosis may develop.
Fatigue, low mood, sleep disturbance and craving can follow sustained use.
Other stimulants increase cardiovascular and overheating risks; alcohol and depressants can obscure impairment.
Snorting may damage nasal tissue. Injecting non-sterile material adds vein, infection and blood-borne virus risks; strength and contents vary.
Current intelligence status
Assessment, confidence and direction
WAND estimated 55% lower consumption across comparable sampled sites between early 2021 and early 2026, including a 39% fall from early 2025, but this experimental signal does not establish a fall in every locality or population.
Reason: Credible but partial sources support a constrained assessment; the direction or reach cannot be generalised across the UK.
Principal source limits: Table 1 shows catchment means ± standard error, not national annual consumption or prevalence. Heroin estimates are particularly uncertain. Annual England totals for Aug 2024–Jul 2025 remain a separate earlier series. Household survey for England and Wales; it under-represents some high-risk populations and does not cover the whole UK.
Geography and reference periods are given in each linked source card below. The rating is an editorial evidence judgement, not a probability, clinical risk score or TD priority.The assessment reflects the latest linked evidence and is not a universal severity rating.
Operational implications
Evidence-supported prompts for professional response
Compare wastewater with local treatment, seizures and acute presentations before changing stimulant provision.
Record substance, sold identity, route, frequency and combinations; review physical, mental-health and dependence needs.
Use symptom-led assessment and escalate reduced consciousness, seizures, overheating, chest pain or severe agitation.
Triangulate treatment, mortality, testing, hospital and frontline evidence before assigning a local trend.
Related intelligence
Continue into connected platform evidence
Sources & limitations
Direct evidence links, reference periods and status
WAND: estimating drug consumption, 2021 to 2026
Published14 October 2026Reference period16-site trend · Jan–Apr 2021–2026; phase 3 regional findings
Table 1 shows catchment means ± standard error, not national annual consumption or prevalence. Heroin estimates are particularly uncertain. Annual England totals for Aug 2024–Jul 2025 remain a separate earlier series.Drug misuse in England and Wales
Published11 Dec 2025Reference periodYear ending March 2025
Household survey for England and Wales; it under-represents some high-risk populations and does not cover the whole UK.Amphetamine drug profile
PublishedSource page undatedReference periodRoutes and pharmacology
European evidence may not mirror every UK product or route.