Ketamine is steadily becoming the drug of choice for many people in the party scene. Here’s how to keep you and your mates safe.
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The Drug and Substance Checking Bill currently moving through parliament marks another milestone in New Zealand’s shift away from criminalisation and towards harm reduction.
New research shows some festival goers are willing to take a dodgy pill regardless of the test result. So, let’s use pill testing to educate them and others about reducing their risk.
Almost 20% of people in the 2019 Global Drug Survey had been taken advantage of while under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
People who use party drugs say it gives them energy to dance and socialise, reduces their inhibitions and enhances their feelings of connection to others.
Every summer we hear of more deaths from drugs at festivals. But MDMA was originally a medicine, so how can it kill users?
Monkey dust is in the “bath salts” family. Here’s what that means.
With several music festival patrons dying this year the pill testing debate is in full swing. Yet people can already purchase legally available test kits. Do they work?
Many brides are ecstatic when they marry, but few use the drug ecstasy on the big day. Kim Kardashian West recently divulged that she did. A drug expert explains the big risks of the party drug.
A new study among gay and bisexual men living with HIV found those who were occasional or regular users of party drugs reported significantly better social outcomes than non-users.
Current trials suggest MDMA could used to treat psychiatric disorders as a prescription medicine by 2021. But there remain a number of unresolved patient / doctor issues to be considered.
The recent death of ‘Storm Chaser’ star Joel Taylor, reportedly because of his use of the GHB, is a tragic reminder of the drug’s dangerous impact.
It’s easy to overdose on the recreational drug GHB, as recent cases in Melbourne show.
During the 1950s and 1960s, LSD was used more for psychotherapy than recreation. Between 1950 and 1965, many were treated with LSD for alcoholism, depression, schizophrenia, autism and homosexuality.
Ecstasy is the street name for 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, or MDMA, an illicit party drug that speeds up messages to and from the brain and alters the user’s perception of reality.
Some of the greatest harms from using illicit drugs are because they are illegal.
Not only are our drug policies not working, we’re falling behind the rest of the world and what evidence says is best to ensure we have fewer deaths from illicit drugs.
Testing drugs at music festivals not only means we can assess whether they contain anything unexpected, but it’s an opportunity to try to change the behaviour of users.
The death of 19-year-old Georgina Bartter at a music festival on the weekend from a suspected ecstasy overdose could possibly have been avoided with a simple harm-minimisation intervention. Pill testing…
Top contributors
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Adjunct Professor at the National Drug Research Institute (Melbourne based), Curtin University
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Associate Professor of Population Health, New York University
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Professor & Specialist in Drug Policy, UNSW
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Principal Research Fellow, Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University
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Senior lecturer, Australian National University
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Professor, Mental Health and Addiction, Rural Health Research Institute, Charles Sturt University
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Principal Research Fellow, University of Melbourne; Head of Substance Use Research, Orygen, The University of Melbourne
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Lecturer, Edith Cowan University
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PhD Candidate, Royal Holloway, University of London
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Senior Research Associate, National Centre for Clinical Research on Emerging Drugs, UNSW
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Senior Lecturer of Addiction, Edith Cowan University
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Senior Research Fellow, National Centre for Clinical Research on Emerging Drugs, UNSW
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Postdoctoral research associate, University of Sydney
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Medicinal Chemist, UNSW
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Professor of Law, University of Waikato