National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC)

06/02/2026

🔔New survey: Please share with your networks 🔔

NCCRED, AIVL, CAHMA and Harm Reduction Victoria are running a study to better understand the experiences of people who’ve used benzodiazepines sourced from dealers or online markets in the past 12 months in order to help improve services and harm reduction.

Applicants must be 18+, live in Australia and have used benzodiazepines from unregulated (street based or online markets) sources on three or more occasions in the past 12 months. Participants who complete screening will be invited to also complete a confidential 60–90-minute interview, online or in person, during which they will be asked about drug use, experience of benzodiazepines and harm reduction practices. People who complete an interview will receive a $60 payment.

To find out more: https://nccred.org.au/research/our-research/current-research-projects/the-navigating-novel-benzos-study

National Centre for Clinical Research on Emerging Drugs | Australian Injecting & Illicit Drug Users League - AIVL | CAHMA and The Connection | Harm Reduction Victoria (Australia)

05/02/2026

We want to hear from you! We’re seeking feedback on the NDARC Webinar Series via a short, anonymous survey. Please share your views to help us assess the impact, reach and effectiveness of the Series and identify opportunities for improvement.

Complete the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NDARCWebinar25

04/02/2026

🍷🚫 Illicit alcohol – illegally manufactured or distributed alcohol that can contain harmful, not-fit-for-human-consumption compounds – is an emerging public health concern in Australia.

In a new blog post, NDARC postdoctoral research fellow Dr Michala Kowalski and National Drug Research Institute (NDRI) alcohol policy researcher Dr Nic Taylor unpack the issues and explain how the upcoming Illicit Alcohol Roundtable aims to help prevent the growth of this market.

Read more ➡️

NDARC Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr Michala Kowalski and NDRI alcohol policy researcher Dr Nic Taylor write about the focus of the upcoming Illicit Alcohol Roundtable.

02/02/2026

GHB-related deaths have increased 10-fold since 2013, while the number of hospitalisations more than tripled, according to an Australian-first study from NDARC.

Read more here: https://www.unsw.edu.au/news/2026/02/rising-ghb-hospitalisations-deaths-across-nation-ndarc-study-shows

02/02/2026

Va**ng can help disadvantaged Australians quit smoking but what does this mean for clinical practice?

NDARC's Associate Professor Ryan Courtney and Professor Hayden McRobbie wrote about their latest research on the use of ni****ne vapes as quit-smoking aids for MJA InSight+.

Read more here:

Va**ng has shown promise as an effective quit smoking aid in the general population, but

01/02/2026

For our next webinar, join NDARC’s Scientia Professor Louisa Degenhardt and Dr Thomas Santo Jr to learn about injecting drug use and infectious diseases in prisons.

🗓️ Thursday, 5 February
⏲️ 3pm AEDT
📍 Zoom webinar

Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN__ao3iOZ8RLyUipsHfEwVrw

30/01/2026

🔔 Reminder: There's still time to complete the Australian Ketamine Survey, which aims to better understand use of the drug and help inform harm reduction. See below for full details 👇

The Australian Ketamine Survey aims to better understand how people use K, why they use K and how using K has affected them, in order to improve consumer health and inform harm reduction.

Find out more: https://redcap.link/CompletetheAustralianKetamineSurvey

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29/01/2026

NDARC’s Prof Michael Farrell, Scientia Prof Louisa Degenhardt and Dr Thomas Santo Jr. shared preliminary findings on health and justice outcomes after release from incarceration in New South Wales in a recent Australasian Justice Health Network webinar.

📹 Watch it here:

The Prison Outcomes STudy (POST) is a population-based data linkage study of all adults incarcerated in New South Wales since 2000 (~200,000 people), using 1...

27/01/2026

NDARC Director, Professor Michael Farrell, recently joined ABC Radio National's Health Report to discuss the trend of people trading ‘dry’ January for ‘high’ January with THC, and the health benefits of avoiding for a month 🍷🚫

🎧 Listen here: https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/healthreport/dry-january-high-thc-cannabis/106255958

In the US, companies have jumped on the trend of people abstaining from alcohol in January and offered THC as an alternative. It raises the question – is THC, or cannabis more broadly, a healthier alternative to alcohol? And what are the health benefits of avoiding alcohol for a month? Guest/s Pro...

23/01/2026

Our Webinar Series returns next month, and we have a fantastic array of speakers and topics lined up we can’t wait to share with you. Watch this space for more information but, in the meantime, feel free to catch up on any sessions you may have missed last year here: https://www.youtube.com/

20/01/2026

📘📊 Explore emerging trends drawn from interviews with people who use illicit drugs in jurisdictions nationwide in the 2025 Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS) jurisdictional reports.

Find out more: https://www.unsw.edu.au/research/ndarc/ndarc-projects/the-illicit-drug-reporting-system-idrs

18/01/2026

Congratulations to NDARC’s Dr Christel Macdonald on being awarded a research grant from the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) to explore the impact of legislative changes on mental health diversion in the NSW Local Court.

Dr Macdonald, who is a postdoctoral research fellow at NDARC, said it was an important area of study given the overrepresentation of people with a mental illness or cognitive impairment within the criminal justice system.

The project is titled ‘Has reform delivered? A mixed-methods study of diversion outcomes and case processing under the Mental Health and Cognitive Impairment Forensic Provisions Act 2020’, and it will be funded through the AIC’s Criminology Research Fund.

The research team includes Professor Donald Weatherburn, Dr Simon Clay and Professor David Greenberg.