NDARC and NDRI researchers awarded NHMRC funding

Australia’s drug monitoring systems will be strengthened to better detect and respond to emerging drug-related harms through a $1.64 million grant awarded to Dr Rachel Sutherland from NDARC at UNSW Sydney. 

Dr Sutherland, a Senior Research Fellow and Deputy Lead of the Drug Trends Program at NDARC, said dramatic shifts in drug markets in recent years were placing increased strain on existing drug monitoring systems. 

“More than 1200 new psychoactive substances have emerged, established drug markets such MDMA and ketamine have diversified to include more potent forms, and there is a rising prevalence of counterfeit benzodiazepines and synthetic opioids,” Dr Sutherland said. 

“These changes are creating increasingly volatile and adulterated drug markets that increase the risk of unintentional drug consumption and acute toxicity. They also present significant challenges for how we monitor and respond to drug-related harms”. Read more 

NDRI Research Fellow, Dr Samantha Colledge-Frisby will examine why serious bacterial infections are increasing and develop practical prevention strategies to reduce hospitalisations and improve health outcomes. 

“Fifteen million people inject drugs around the world and most will experience a bacterial infection related to their injecting drug use. The incidence of hospitalisations with injecting-related infections is increasing at a staggering rate and contributes to chronic illness and premature death,” Dr Samantha Colledge-Frisby said.  

“Despite this, there is a complete dearth of information on why this increase exists or how to prevent these infections from occurring.  

“This project will quantify the true economic and health burden of injecting-related harms in Australia and adapt a scalable intervention to prevent bacterial infections, diverting costs from treating these infections and contributing to health equity for people who inject drugs.” Read more

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