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Dr Adrian Farrugia

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Adrian is a Research Associate at the National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University. Adrian’s research focuses on understandings of addiction and health, youth drug consumption, drug education and other health interventions. Adrian’s current research is on the impediments to the uptake of take-home naloxone (THN) in Australia. Part of the Social Science of Addiction Concepts (SSAC) research program, this qualitative project will collect the stories of people who consume opioids and health professionals to understand the meanings of THN and shed light on impediments to scale-up.

Adrian’s current research on THN continues his focus on health promotion developed during his PhD research which analysed how young people, their drug consumption and their social lives are constituted in Australian classroom drug education and social marketing. Adrian has published on young men’s drug consumption and friendship, young men’s understandings of health promotion information, gender and drug education and neuroscientific accounts of youth and addiction.

Supervision

Adrian welcomes supervision opportunities in the sociology of alcohol and other drug consumption, youth drug consumption, drug education and health promotion, masculinity and gender and social approaches to health and illness more broadly. His theoretical interests include post-structural and post-human approaches to subjectivity, materiality and the body. Adrian has particular interest in the use of Deleuze and Guattari, Latour and Actor Network Theory and Science and Technology Studies (STS) in qualitative research.

Qualifications
  • PhD Health Sciences, National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University
  • BA/BEd Indigenous studies, Politics, ESL education, Monash University
  • BEd (Hons), Monash University
Expertise and Research Interests
  • Concepts of addiction
  • Illicit drug consumption and treatment
  • Drug education and health promotion
  • Youth illicit drug use
  • Gender and the body
  • The sociology of health
Current Projects
Completed Projects
NDRI Publications

Farrugia, A., C., Lenton, E., Seear, K., Kagan, D., Valentine, K., Fraser, S., Mulcahy, S., Edwards, M. and Jeffcote, D. (2024). 'We've got a present for you’: Hepatitis C elimination, compromised healthcare subjects and treatment as a gift. Social Science and Medicine, 340. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116416 [RJ2133] View web page

Farrugia, A., C. (2023). Under pressure: The paradox of autonomy and social norms in drug education. International Journal of Drug Policy, 122. doi:10.1016/j.drugpo.2023.104194 [RJ2108] View web page

Farrugia, A., C., Fomiatti, R., Fraser, S., Moore, D., Edwards, M., Birbilis, E. and Treloar, C. (2022). Hepatitis C cure as a ‘gathering’: Attending to the social and material relations of hepatitis C treatment. Sociology of Health and Illness. doi:10.1111/1467-9566.13467 [RJ1887] View web page

Farrugia, A., C., Moore, D., Keane, H., Ekendahl, M., Graham, K. and Duncan, D. (2022). Noticed and then Forgotten: Gender in Alcohol Policy Stakeholder Responses to Alcohol and Violence. Qualitative Health Research. doi:10.1177/10497323221110092 [RJ1921] View web page

Fomiatti, R., Farrugia, A., C., Fraser, S., Moore, D., Edwards, M. and Treloar, C. (2022). Post-crisis imaginaries in the time of direct-acting antiviral hepatitis C treatment. Time & Society. doi:10.1177/0961463X221128736 [RJ1941] View web page

Waling, A., Farrugia, A., C. and Fraser, S. (2022). Embarrassment, Shame, and Reassurance: Emotion and Young People's Access to Online Sexual Health Information. Sexuality Research and Social Policy. doi:10.1007/s13178-021-00668-6 [RJ1850] View web page

Farrugia, A., C., Treloar, C. and Fraser, S. (2021). Overdoselifesavers.org: a mixed-method evaluation of a public information website on experiences of overdose and using take-home naloxone to save lives. Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy, 29, (1), pp. 43-53. doi:10.1080/09687637.2020.1858758 [RJ1679] View web page

Farrugia, A., C., Waling, A., Pienaar, K. and Fraser, S. (2021). The “Be All and End All”? Young People, Online Sexual Health Information, Science and Skepticism. Qualitative Health Research. doi:10.1177/10497323211003543 [RJ1713] View web page

Fomiatti, R., Farrugia, A., C., Fraser, S. and Hocking, S. (2021). Improving the effectiveness and inclusiveness of alcohol and other drug outreach models for young people: a literature review. Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy. doi:10.1080/09687637.2021.1975652 [RJ1789] View web page

Fomiatti, R., Moore, D., Fraser, S. and Farrugia, A., C. (2021). Holding ‘new recovery’ together: Organising relations and forms of coordination in professional sociomaterial practices of addiction recovery. International Journal of Drug Policy, 97. doi:10.1016/j.drugpo.2021.103357 [RJ1764] View web page

Neale, J., Farrugia, A., C., Campbell, A., Dietze, P., Dwyer, R., Fomiatti, R., Jones, J., Comer, S., Fraser, S. and Strang, J. (2021). Understanding preferences for type of take-home naloxone device: International qualitative analysis of the views of people who use opioids. Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy. doi:10.1080/09687637.2021.1872499 [RJ1684] View web page

Seear, K., Fraser, S., Farrugia, A., C. and Valentine, K. (2021). Beyond a 'post-cure' world: Sketches for a new futurology of hepatitis C. International Journal of Drug Policy, 94. doi:10.1016/j.drugpo.2020.103042 [RJ1674] View web page

Farrugia, A., C., Neale, J., Dwyer, R., Fomiatti, R., Fraser, S., Strang, J. and Dietze, P. (2020). Conflict and communication: Managing the multiple affordances of take-home naloxone administration events in Australia. Addiction Research & Theory, 28, (1), pp. 29-37. doi:10.1080/16066359.2019.1571193 [RJ1446] View web page

Farrugia, A., C., Pienaar, K., Fraser, S., Edwards, M. and Madden, A. (2020). Basic care as exceptional care: addiction stigma and consumer accounts of quality healthcare in Australia. Health Sociology Review, 30, (2), pp. 95-110. doi:10.1080/14461242.2020.1789485 [RJ1622] View web page

Fomiatti, R., Farrugia, A., C., Dwyer, R., Fraser, S., Neale, J. and Strang, J. (2020). Addiction stigma and the production of impediments to uptake of take-home naloxone uptake. Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine. doi:10.1177/1363459320925863 [RJ1499] View web page

Fomiatti, R., Savic, M., Fraser, S., Edwards, M. and Farrugia, A., C. (2020). Heavy drinking as phenomenon: gender and agency in accounts of men’s heavy drinking. Health Sociology Review. doi:10.1080/14461242.2020.1850317 [RJ1659] View web page

Farrugia, A., C. (2019). Commentary on Elliot et al. (2019): How stigma shapes overdose revival and possible avenues to disrupt it. Addiction, 114, (8), pp. 1387-1388. doi:10.1111/add.14660 [RJ1535] View web page

Farrugia, A., C., Fraser, S., Dwyer, R., Fomiatti, R., Neale, J., Dietze, P. and Strang, J. (2019). Take-home naloxone and the politics of care. Sociology of Health and Illness, 41, (2), pp. 427-443. doi:10.1111/1467-9566.12848 [RJ1427] View web page

Weier, M. and Farrugia, A., C. (2019). 'Potential issues of morbidity, toxicity and dependence': Problematizing the up-scheduling of over-the-counter codeine in Australia. International Journal of Drug Policy, 80. doi:10.1016/j.drugpo.2019.07.033 [RJ1455] View web page

Fraser, S., Farrugia, A., C. and Dwyer, R. (2018). Grievable lives? Death by opioid overdose in Australian newspaper coverage. International Journal of Drug Policy, 59, pp. 28-35. doi:10.1016/j.drugpo.2018.06.004 [RJ1434] View web page

Lenton, S., Fraser, S., Farrugia, A., C. and Rechichi, V. (2018). Submission to Prescription strong (Schedule 8) opioid use and misuse in Australia – options for a regulatory response: Consultation paper January 2018. National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia. [R324] Download PDF

Farrugia, A., C. (2017). Young people and the aesthetics of health promotion: Beyond rationality and risk (book review). Health Sociology Review, 26, (3), pp. 339-340. eContent Management Pty Ltd. doi:10.1080/14461242.2016.1271283 [UP37] View web page

Dennis, F. and Farrugia, A., C. (2017). Materialising drugged pleasures: Practice, politics and care. International Journal of Drug Policy, 49, pp. 86-91. doi:10.1016/j.drugpo.2017.10.001 [RJ1380] View web page

Farrugia, A., C. (2017). Gender, reputation and regret: the ontological politics of Australian drug education. Gender and Education, 29, (3), pp. 281-298. doi:10.1080/09540253.2016.1156655 [RJ1206] View web page

Farrugia, A., C. and Fraser, S. (2017). Prehending addiction: Alcohol and other drug professionals’ encounters with ‘new’ addictions. Qualitative Health Research, 27, (13), pp. 2042-2056. doi:10.1177/1049732317731539 [RJ1343] View web page

Farrugia, A., C. and Fraser, S. (2017). Science and scepticism: Drug information, young men and counterpublic health. Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine, 21, (6), pp. 595-615. doi:10.1177/1363459315628042 [RJ1140] View web page

Farrugia, A., C. and Fraser, S. (2017). Young brains at risk: Co-constituting youth and addiction in neuroscience-informed Australian drug education. Biosocieties, 12, (4), pp. 588-610. doi:10.1057/s41292-017-0047-2 [RJ1301] View web page

Farrugia, A., C., Fraser, S. and Dwyer, R. (2017). Assembling the social and political dimensions of take-home naloxone. Contemporary Drug Problems, 44, (3), pp. 163-175. doi:10.1177/0091450917723350 [RJ1300] View web page

Farrugia, A., C., Seear, K. and Fraser, S. (2017). Authentic advice for authentic problems? Legal information in Australian classroom drug education. Addiction Research & Theory, 26, (3), pp. 193-204. doi:10.1080/16066359.2017.1343823 [RJ1347] View web page

Farrugia, A., C. (2015). "You can’t just give your best mate a massive hug every day": Young men, play and MDMA. Contemporary Drug Problems, 42, (3), pp. 240-256. doi:10.1177/0091450915601520 [RJ1134] View web page

Farrugia, A., C. (2014). Assembling the dominant accounts of youth drug use in Australian harm reduction drug education. International Journal of Drug Policy, 24, (4), pp. 663-672. doi:10.1016/j.drugpo.2014.04.019 [RJ1004] View web page

External Publications

No non-NDRI publications available