Acute shortages of various hot drugs (8)

I believe the answer is:

droughts

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'acute shortages' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both states of affairs as well as being plural nouns.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I don't see?

'various hot drugs' is the wordplay.
'various' is an anagram indicator.
'hot'+'drugs'='hotdrugs'
'hotdrugs' with letters rearranged gives 'DROUGHTS'.

'of' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

I've seen this clue in The Globe and Mail.

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