Drug use during COVID-19: New study paints an interesting picture

This seminar will provide an overview of the The Australian’s Drug Use: Adapting to Pandemic Threats (ADAPT) study, including some preliminary findings

Governments around the world have imposed restrictions on gatherings and movement in an attempt to reduce the transmission of COVID-19. This has likely had a significant impact on illicit drug markets, use patterns, harms and help-seeking, however the extent of this impact in the Australian context remains unclear. The ADAPT study was developed to address this knowledge gap and includes an online survey of people who were regularly using illicit drugs in 2019 (i.e. prior to the emergence of COVID-19). This seminar will provide an overview of the ADAPT study, as well as present some preliminary findings from the baseline sample.

Speaker Bio:

Dr Rachel Sutherland, Research Fellow
National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW

Dr Rachel Sutherland is an experienced Research Fellow, with over 11 years of experience working in the AOD research sector. She has worked on a wide variety of research projects, most notably as the National Co-ordinator of the Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS) and the Ecstasy and related Drugs Reporting System (EDRS) (2011-2018). In 2018 Rachel completed her PhD, which examined the New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) market in Australia. Her research interests include illicit drug surveillance, NPS, cryptomarkets and harm reduction.