This year, DruGS Program Lead Dr Adrian Farrugia has been pleased to take up invitations to present keynote addresses at two conferences. The first, the Association of Alcohol and Other Drug Agencies Northern Territory annual conference was held in Darwin, Australia and the second, the Contemporary Drug Problems biennial conference was held in Manchester, UK. Both conferences offered opportunities for generative and challenging discussions about alcohol and other drug consumption practices, related responses and cutting-edge research.

The Association of Alcohol and Other Drug Agencies Northern Territory is an independent, membership-driven, not-for-profit organisation that works to strengthen the alcohol and other drug service sector in the Northern Territory, Australia. Their annual conference offers a dynamic platform for a the exchange of ideas and best practices to advance alcohol and other drug service delivery. Responding to the conference theme ‘Voices for change, leading the way’ Adrian closed the first day of the conference with his keynote entitled ‘The politics of the stories we tell: Generating voices for change through research’. The presentation examined how the processes of research design and data analysis are implicated in telling specific stories and generating certain voices for change in the alcohol and other drug field. Drawing on several recent projects, Adrian argued that by generating specific voices for change, research must be addressed as political endeavour and researchers as – often inadvertent and sometimes unwilling – political actors. The keynote concluded by encouraging researchers to embrace, rather than shy away from, the political act of storytelling that informs their work and defines much of its importance.

Co-convened by Professors Kate Seear (Deakin University) and kylie valentine (UNSW) along with the conference organising committee, the 2025 Contemporary Drug Problems conference theme was ‘Boundaries, borders, binaries and barriers’. As a leading journal for the field of critical drug studies, the Contemporary Drug Problems conference is an opportunity for discussions that challenge, dissolve and dismantle taken for granted ways of knowing and responding to alcohol and other drug consumption. Co-authors Professor Helen Keane (Australian National University) and Adrian closed the conference with the final of three keynote addresses. Entitled ‘What’s in a name? A story about critical drug studies’, their keynote offered an account of the historical development of ‘critical drug studies’ as a field, examining what holds it together, including its founding assumptions, approaches and political orientation. Addressing each element of ‘critical drug studies’, they explored what makes the field critical, what substances and other forces are included in its foundational category of drugs, and what kinds of studies are carried out and produced by critical drug scholars.  

Overall, Contemporary Drug Problems 2025 was a highly generative event for the DruGS program. The conference theme successfully generated discussion of the continued need to examine the founding commitments that shape our work and the emergence of ‘critical drug studies’ as a field itself. The DruGS team values the conferences highly and looks forward to participating in and learning from the 2027 event.