DruGS Program Lead Dr Adrian Farrugia will soon begin work on a major new project investigating the relationship between the priorities that currently guide harm reduction responses and young people’s concerns about, and experiences of, drug-related harms. Entitled ‘Reconceptualising harm reduction for young people: Building more effective responses to youth drug use’, the project is funded by an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship awarded to Dr Farrugia.

The project responds to the way that, despite decades of effort, the first two ‘pillars’ of Australia’s National Drug Strategy – demand reduction and supply reduction – have not achieved their intended aims, especially among young people. While the third pillar, ‘harm reduction’, was a crucial innovation and a dramatic improvement on the prohibitionist approaches that preceded it, contemporary young people encounter drugs in a highly dynamic environment shaped by debates about the harms and benefits of drugs and the relationship between drugs and health more broadly.

Many countries such as the Netherlands, Canada, Germany and Portugal, as well as some US states, have begun decriminalising or legalising illicit drugs; many drugs, including cannabis, MDMA and psilocybin, are now considered effective medicines when taken under the right conditions. At the same time, media reports describe the use of these and other drugs as enhancements by business executives, parents and in counselling contexts. Given these recent developments, young people’s documented scepticism about official information on harm is now compounded by a range of social, scientific, institutional and regulatory shifts that demonstrate that drugs cannot be understood solely in terms of their potential harms.

This project addresses the challenges posed by global shifts that are reshaping the social position of drugs in young people’s lives by examining how young people understand drugs, intoxication and health, with the aim of developing responses grounded in their perspectives and experiences.

As Adrian explains,

This project is designed to explore and address the complex and dynamic character of drug-related harms and young people’s alcohol and other drug use in general. At a time when the social and even legal status of drugs is being contested globally, it’s crucial that we respond to this shifting landscape. Overall, this project aims to produce a youth drug response framework accompanied by a suite of implementable resources for drug services, youth events and, importantly, young people themselves.

Starting in mid-2027, the project will first establish advisory groups and examine youth-focused harm reduction and health-promotion materials. It will then conduct interviews to explore the views and experiences of young people, as well as relevant policy and practice professionals.