Connections Newsletter

Drug and Alcohol Research Connections is a free, bi-monthly newsletter that is available online here. To receive Connections by email please subscribe here

Connections is published jointly by NDRI and our sister organisations, the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, and the National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction (NCETA) at Flinders University in Adelaide.

Connections covers the latest on research and publications, news and events from the three centres, with a focus on the translation of research into policy and practice. It also provides commentary and opinion on current issues of importance to the alcohol and other drug field.

Connections is aimed at policy makers, practitioners and agencies, academics and researchers, and anyone else wishing to stay informed about drug and alcohol research in Australia. It was launched in April 2014, replacing the CentreLines newsletter previously published by NDRI.

Recent Connections articles by NDRI researchers include:

• Opinion – Australia’s AOD landscape: Reflections on 15 years serving on the Board of a national research institute
• Research Focus – Evaluation of the Western Australian Police Force Naloxone Pilot
• Opinion – Take-home naloxone: research dispels concern that it increases drug-related risk behaviour
• Opinion – Minimum unit pricing in the Northern Territory. What we know, and where to next
• Research Focus – Birdiya Maya: A community-led research project that elevates the voices of Aboriginal people with lived experience of homelessness
• Opinion – Facilitating First Nations Australians’ self-determination policy making processes
• Research Focus – I-CARE: Predicting and preventing child removals and optimising the child protection system for Aboriginal children in Western Australia
• Opinion – Our systems undervalue prevention – FASD is a case in point
• Research Focus – The Social and Economic Costs of Substance Use Program
• Opinion – No time to waste: Ageing, alcohol and pharmaceuticals
• Research Focus – Preventing opioid overdose: from the global to the local
• Opinion – Behind the curtain: Aboriginal girls and young women ‘voice’ their solutions for a stronger future
• Research Focus – International Cannabis Cultivation Survey
• Opinion – Implementing take-home naloxone in Australia: We’ve come a long way but there’s still a long way to go
• Opinion – Up in smoke: The extraordinary cost of smoking to Australia
• Research Focus – An evaluation of the 'Daybreak' program: A digital intervention addressing alcohol use problems
• Opinion – Beyond 'pill testing': Calling for appropriate event health care services at music festivals
• Research Focus – Pathways in and out of adult prison for young men with injecting drug use histories
• Opinion – Cannabis regulation: Profit versus public health
• Research Focus – Hope, choice and the improvable self: A critical analysis of ‘new recovery’ in Australia
• Opinion – Renewed interest in psychedelics as potentially useful therapeutic agents
• Research Focus – India and Australia: A cross-cultural assessment of youth engagement with social media marketing of alcohol
• Opinion – To reduce child injury deaths in Australia we need to look at the link to adult alcohol consumption
• Research Focus – The price of ice: The social and economic costs of methamphetamine in Australia
• Opinion – More research needed to address complex questions raised by take-home naloxone​
• Research Focus – The social and cultural resilience and emotional well-being of Aboriginal mothers in WA prisons… and beyond
• Opinion – Counting people who use illicit drugs: the case of ice​
• Research Focus – Fathers and alcohol. Implications for preconception, pregnancy, infant and childhood health outcomes
• Opinion – Addressing masculinities should be central to future policy debate on alcohol-related violence​
• Research Focus – Alcohol Accords can work: Long-term evaluation of the Norseman Voluntary Liquor Agreement​