Tracking the supply of nitazenes on online drug markets with Amy Peacock and Monica Barratt

In this episode, Dr Elle Wadsworth talks to Dr Amy Peacock, an Associate Professor and Deputy Director of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, and Dr Monica Barratt, an Associate Professor at Australia's National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University. The interview covers Amy and Monica’s research article examining the availability of nitazenes via cryptomarkets and surface web shops.

• What are nitazenes? [01:30]
• What are cryptomarkets? [03:00]
• Why did Monica and Amy look for nitazenes on cryptomarkets? [04:40]
• Why nitazenes are popular now [06:12]
• The key findings of the study [07:41]
• The change of the main country of origin for nitazenes [10:55]
• The turnover of cryptomarkets [12:11]
• The implications of the findings for policymakers in Australia [14:20]
• The next steps in this research area [17:20]

About Elle Wadsworth: Elle is an academic fellow with the Society for the Study of Addiction. She is based at the University of Bath with the Addiction and Mental Health Group and her research interests include drug policy, cannabis legalisation, and public health. Elle holds a voluntary role at The Loop, a non-profit service provider of drug checking in the UK.

About Amy Peacock: Amy is an Associate Professor, National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Emerging Leadership Fellow and Deputy Director of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales. She is also Program Lead for Drug Trends, a national monitoring system identifying trends in illicit drug use, markets and harms that is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing.

About Monica Barratt: Monica is an NHMRC Emerging Leadership fellow at Australia's National Drug Research Institute (Curtin University), recognised internationally for generating policy and practice relevant insights into the reduction of health harms for people who use unregulated drugs. Monica has published 158 peer-reviewed articles with over 10K Google Scholar citations. Monica's research has been supported domestic and international competitive health-related funds. Her key partners include organisations that represent people with lived-living experience of drug use and peak bodies. She holds editor roles at the International Journal of Drug Policy and Drug and Alcohol Review.

Declarations of interest: Monica holds four voluntary roles for community organisations engaged in harm reduction service provision and advocacy. She is the National Research Lead for The Loop Australia, a non-profit service provider of drug checking in Australia. She serves on the boards of directors of three harm reduction charities: Bluelight Communities Ltd (Chair), Students for Sensible Drug Policy Australia (Treasurer), and the Australian Psychedelic Society (Member). Amy has no interests to declare.

Original article: Availability of nitazenes via cryptomarkets and surface web shops: An observational study https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70350

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

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Music by Jack Shakespeare.

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