Research directions for improved responses to young people’s e-cigarette use: New report from a consultation with e-cigarette policy and practice professionals

The DruGS team recently completed a professional consultation conducted on efforts to address young people’s use of e-cigarettes or vaping. Debate continues on how to balance the harm reduction potential of e-cigarettes against concerns about their potential risks. Key concerns include the acute harms of vaping and its potential to ‘normalise’ nicotine consumption, including smoking.…

New article: Health professional discourses on performance and image-enhancing drugs (PIEDs), health, and masculinity

A new article by DruGS team members Gemma Nourse, David Moore and Suzanne Fraser examines health professional understandings of performance and image-enhancing drugs (PIEDs) in Australia. The article has been developed from Gemma’s PhD thesis, supervised by Suzanne and David, which examined what it means to be a man who consumes PIEDs, a practice commonly pathologised…

DruGS Program PhD scholar wins prestigious thesis award

As the academic year comes to a close, we’re delighted to announce that DruGS program PhD scholar Gemma Nourse has won La Trobe University’s Nancy Millis Medal for her PhD thesis: ‘Co-constituting drugs, health and masculinity: Performance and image-enhancing drug discourses in Australia’. The medal is ‘presented to outstanding PhD candidates for the exceptionally high…

DruGS team to present research in Sweden and Portugal

November sees members of the DruGS Program travel to Europe to present a range of conference and seminar papers. DruGS Program Lead Professor Suzanne Fraser will present at a seminar hosted by Professor Mats Ekendahl (a DruGS Program collaborator) at the Department of Social Work, Stockholm University (8 November), and at the European Conference on…

Comparing ‘gendering practices’ in research on alcohol and violence in Australia, Canada and Sweden

A new article, led by DruGS program member David Moore, reports findings from an international comparative research project on gender, alcohol and violence. The article, entitled ‘Gendering practices in quantitative research on alcohol and violence: Comparing research from Australia, Canada and Sweden’, analyses the treatment of gender in Canadian and Swedish quantitative research on alcohol…

Costs of oversimplifying intoxication: Forthcoming handbook chapter

In an invited chapter for the forthcoming Handbook on Intoxicants and Intoxication, DruGS program members David Moore, Duane Duncan and Emily Lenton compare the treatment of intoxication in Australian alcohol policy documents with the accounts generated during in-depth interviews with Australian alcohol policy stakeholders, in particular their reflections on the complex relationship between intoxication and…

SSAC becomes DruGS

In July 2019 the Social Studies of Addiction Concepts (SSAC) program underwent a significant move, relocating from the National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University, to the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society (ARCSHS) at La Trobe University. Led by Professor Suzanne Fraser, who has taken up the role of Director of ARCSHS, the…

Lived experiences of drinking

New in our program of research is a project exploring experiences of people who continue to drink heavily while living with significant alcohol-related health problems. This South Western Sydney Local Health District-funded project will investigate how people who experience health difficulties associated with alcohol consumption give meaning to their consumption, manage health conditions and view,…