AOD Policy

A Prescription Model for Vapes: The way we ‘do’ medicines policy in Australia  Abstract: On 2 May 2023, the Australian Federal Government announced a suite of reforms aimed at ensuring the effectiveness of the prescription model of regulation of vaping (or e-cigarette) products in Australia. These reforms are intended to protect Australians, particularly young people, from

China’s Role in Synthetic Opioid Trafficking: Efforts to Reduce the Supply of Precursor Chemicals at the Primary Source. [Ever since the ‘Opium Wars’,  (https://youtu.be/7UScdK82aAo?list=PLTMqlfT-1C1x7ekCSxIhF6HMjHBqMAK6n&t=8) when opium was not only legalised and commercialised on a global scale, but actually became currency; the Chinese people have not forgotten the exploitation they experienced at the hands of the ‘West’. 

With a growing voice for greater permission for illicit substance use in some cultures and entrenched addiction for profit industries like Big Alcohol and Big Cannabis, where should the policy priorities lie? View PDF

Resiliency, Substance Use & Sustainable Development Goals – A brief overview of impacts of AOD on no less than 14 of the 17 stated S.D.G’s and the imperative of building and sustaining resilient communities.  View PDF

Sagely Speaking PODCAST| Guest: Harvard Medical Dr. Bertha Madras – Psychedelics, Cannabis & Rescheduling

“It’s a national disgrace, and it’s time we do something about it!…There is no doubt it is getting worse. We are seeing data that high-risk family violence filed in our courts was thought to be around 38%, but it’s more like 60%…” The First Round Table of The Federal Circuit & Family Court of Australia

This paper evaluates the causal effect of drug decriminalization on unintentional drug overdose deaths in a context with relatively poor access to drug treatment services. Using the synthetic control method, I find that when Oregon decriminalized small amounts of drugs in February 2021, it caused 182 additional unintentional drug overdose deaths to occur in Oregon