In a country where Black and Brown people were deprived of bodily autonomy and access to information by law, “drug checking” offers a unique opportunity to promote agency and ownership over decision-making in South Africa.

“Mandrax” is both the brand name of a product containing a combination of methaqualone and diphenhydramine, and the local name for methaqualone in South Africa. With no reliable available data, the chemical composition of pills being sold as “Mandrax” is largely unknown.

How to start a #drugchecking program? How to make yours better? Virtual summit pops off today at 12:45p ET / 9:45a PT Speakers from US, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, UK, Peru Registration: eventbrite.com/e/acdc-drug-ch…

🚨Meet the IJDP Editors Series🚨 “We need better drug laws. We need to destigmatise people who use drugs. We need to elevate the diverse voices of communities who experience the harms and the benefits of psychoactive drugs..." - @monicabarratt, Associate Editor International Journal of Drug Policy.

Partnering with people who supply drugs and networks of people who use drugs to provide a community-intitiated and led drug checking service in South Africa: Updates to follow.

An argument I have been making for a while. If it were possible, and the drugs disappeared from communities, we will not solve much. Drugs serve as a politically expedient whipping-boy and distraction for the failures of political & economic status quo.

Expanding data sources = fostering and sustaining equitable partnerships with people who supply drugs and networks of people who use drugs.

Some of our data from South Africa supports the misrepresentation of metaphedrone (3-MMC) as methcathinone. Makes senses given detection of 3-MMC globally. Curiouser and curiouser.

And seen by itself as well, identified by NMI Australia and ChemCentre researchgate.net/publication/35…

Thought provoking paper from Suzanne Nielsen PhD MPS and team. The utility of FTS outside of drug market monitoring in low prevalence settings? Maybe, its value lies in promoting agency, self-determination and knowledge production and translation?

Episode 1 of Season 2 is all about Global Harm Reduction. Our guests were from Australia, UK, Thailand, Indonesia and Latin America. Have a listen to hear what the most pressing harm reduction needs in their regions. ❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹 Harm Reduction International @CAHMA__ AIVL For PWUD Wellbeing, Health & Human Rights✊️💜 We_Are_NAPUD International Network of People who Use Drugs

Just published my latest #openaccess article with Illicit Economies & Development: doi.org/10.31389/jied.… Thanks @jasoneligh, Global Initiative and co-authors Andrew Scheibe and MJ Stowe Gunasekaran Rengaswamy SANAC Central Drug Authority Harm Reduction International IDPC UN Office on Drugs & Crime The Global Commission on Drug Policy (GCDP) TB HIV Care CapeTalk on 567AM Kgalema Motlanthe Foundation

Our colleagues at the Journal of Illicit Economies and Development released a study on drug consumption and markets in South Africa. "We estimated there to be: 400,000 people who use heroin; 350,000 who use cocaine & 290,000 who use methamphetamine." jied.lse.ac.uk/articles/10.31…

People who use drugs, from some of the most underserved populations and marginalised groups were given autonomy and authority over decision making a several stages of the research - great to see our study published. With shaun shelly SANPUD Global Initiative & others.

Definitely a good reason to keep #naloxone on hand. If you want to know more (as in, quite a bit more) about protonitazene - there are details on pharmacology and effects here in the World Health Organization (WHO) ECDD report (from page 57) ecddrepository.org/sites/default/…

Great commentary by Suzanne Nielsen PhD MPS MJ Stowe @AlisonRitter1 on two recent papers in International Journal of Drug Policy and emerging evidence on safer supply. I love their comment about the famous systematic review of randomised controlled trials of parachutes! bmj.com/content/327/74…

BioMassSpec Thanks @ChenealPuljevic (UQ Medicine) and Ben Tscharke (#QAEHS UQ Health) for leading this publication. I am stoked that us 'health' people are getting some traction in other disciplines 😁 The Loop The Loop Australia Jake O'Brien Richard Bade Fiona Measham MJ Stowe Tim Piatkowski

Open Access: Co-creating and implementing a novel pre-conference event to promote #equity and #inclusivity among academic researchers and people who use drugs MJ Stowe Louise Hansford 💙 Rachel Halford, Jason Wallace Dr Lise Lafferty onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/da…

Very proud of this paper from my wife Dr Lise Lafferty and PhD student MJ Stowe (and others) on novel ways to engage community and early and mid-career researchers in networking at conferences reflecting on experiences from INHSU in INHSU 2022 in Glasgow. Amazing work!!

More like a dreamhd! Not only the opportunity to learn with an incredible source of knowledge, but also a chance to be meaningfully involved in the initial stages of drug checking service delivery and research in Australia.