Current Issue
The July 2025 issue features an editorial on gender differences in alcohol research, with a focus on how men and women are studied in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. Australian research in this issue focussed on: psychological distress trajectories in residential alcohol and other drug treatment; service provider perspectives on implementing telehealth for alcohol and other drug counselling as a health service innovation; understanding drug and alcohol staff perspectives on the barriers and facilitators to drug checking; clinicians' perspectives on cannabis use and cannabis treatment in clients undertaking opioid dependence treatment; the prevalence and correlates of self-reported cannabis use for medicinal, dual and recreational motives; e-cigarette use among gender and sexuality diverse (LGBTQA+) adolescents; patterns of acute gamma-hydroxybutyrate harms requiring ambulance attendance; changes in drug-induced hospitalisations and deaths during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic; contents and time-course of falsified alprazolam detections in New South Wales; exploring socio-demographic characteristics of caregivers who indicated a child was substantially affected by others' drinking; the acceptability of ‘sober curious’ tools for alcohol reduction among midlife women; estimating the prevalence of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder; supervised short-acting injectable opioid treatment; assessing the processes and experiences of using and implementing a routine data collection system at two Aboriginal alcohol and other drug residential services located in rural Queensland; exploring the views of service providers about delivering drug- and alcohol-related health services to Aboriginal people in rural New South Wales; young adults' perspectives on the appeal and influence of ‘better for you’ alcohol products; and a letter updating a previous paper on Australian attitudes towards supervised injecting facilities based on 2022/23 National Drug Strategy Household Survey data.
Research from New Zealand addressed vaping cessation strategies and triggers for relapse amongst people who have vaped and a scoping review on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and the caring and financial burden to caregivers.
International research included papers from Canada on applying a modified version of the prediction of alcohol withdrawal severity scale in a community withdrawal management setting; defining terminology and outcome measures for evaluating overdose response technology; changes in the sex/gender gap in cannabis; and susceptibility to hepatitis B virus infection among people who inject drugs. Papers from America focus on alcohol use disparities among transgender and nonbinary adults; alcohol use in the early postpartum period; and fentanyl polysubstance use patterns and their associations with hepatitis C virus, skin and soft tissue infections, and non-fatal overdose among people who inject drugs. European research looked at parental alcohol problems and lack of adult support during childhood; estimating the prevalence and correlates of problematic alcohol use among patients treated for illicit substance disorder in France; and the Portuguese validated versions of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test.
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Cannabis legalisation and its impact on access, use and public perceptions
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Reviews
Global Perspectives on Kava: A Narrative Systematic Review of the Health Effects, Economic and Social Impacts and Policy Considerations
George Economidis, Michelle Lynch, Sophia Taylor, Winifred Asare-Doku, Georgina Macpherson, Louisa Degenhardt, Michael Farrell, Thomas Santo Jr
25 June 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14080
Mutual-Support Groups for Alcohol and Other Drug Use in East, South and Southeast Asia: A Scoping Review
Wan Jie Tan, Briony Larance, Emma E. Walter, Chloe J. Haynes, Peter J. Kelly
23 June 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14094
Original Papers
Gender and Overdose Risk Factors Among Clients Entering Residential Treatment for Opioid Use
Chloe J. Haynes, Alison K. Beck, Peter J. Kelly, Mei Lin Lee, Robert Stirling, Suzie Hudson, Laura Robinson, Michele Campbell, Carolyn Stubley, Briony Larance
7 July 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.70004
Drugs and Drowning: The Toxicology of Adult Drownings in Baths and Hot Tubs in Australia, 2015–2024
Shane Darke, Michael Farrell, Johan Duflou, Caroline Copeland, Emmert Roberts
1 July 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.70005
‘It'd Be Nice to Know if You're About to Have Drain Cleaner’: A Qualitative Study of Preferred Drug Checking Service Features to Inform the Design of CheQpoint, Queensland's First Fixed-Site Drug Checking Service
Cheneal Puljević, Nina Pocuca, Brodie C. Dakin, Monica J. Barratt, Cameron Francis, Daniel Stjepanović, Sara Gill, Geoff Davey, Leanne Hides
30 June 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.70003
Excess Alcohol-Induced Hospitalisations and Deaths During the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Australia
Wing See Yuen, Nicola Man, Michael Livingston, Agata Chrzanowska, William Gilmore, Louise Tierney, Lauren Moran, Amy Peacock
29 June 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14097
Factors Influencing Co-Use of Tobacco and Cannabis Amongst Young Adults in UK Further Education Colleges: A Qualitative Study
Hannah Walsh, Ann McNeill, Maria Duaso
24 June 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.70002
Absolute Risk Prediction for Cannabis Use Disorder in Adolescence and Early Adulthood Using Bayesian Machine Learning
Tingfang Wang, Joseph M. Boden, Swati Biswas, Pankaj K. Choudhary
22 June 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14098
Relationships Between Motives for Cannabis and Cannabidiol Use in People Who Co-Use: Results From the European Web Survey on Drugs
Davide Fortin, Vincent Leroy, Patrizia Carrieri, João Matias, Tangui Barré
8 June 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14090
Upcoming Special Section: Understanding the emergence and impact of novel synthetic opioids and how to reduce associated harms
A Scoping Review of the Emergence of Novel Synthetic Opioids in Australian Drug Markets: What Does This Mean for Harm Reduction Responses?
Emmanuel Mammoliti, Suzanne Nielsen, Amanda Roxburgh
28 May 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14079
Trends in novel opioid use and detections in exposures and police drug seizures in New South Wales
Janette L. Smith, Jared Brown, David Atefi, Thanjira Jiranantakan, Vanessa Shaw, Christopher Ewers, Lorraine du Toit-Prinsloo, Darren M. Roberts
16 April 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14057
Identification of nitazene-related deaths in Australia: How do we make it accurate and timely?
Jennifer L. Schumann, Jeremy Dwyer, Jared A. Brown, Marianne Jauncey, Amanda Roxburgh
17 February 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14028
Clinical toxicity of nitazene detections in two Australian emergency department toxicosurveillance systems
Katherine Z. Isoardi, Sam Alfred, Courtney Weber, Keith Harris, Jessamine Soderstrom, Rebekka Syrjanen, Amanda Thompson, Jennifer Schumann, Peter Stockham, Paul Sakrajda, Daniel Fatovich, Shaun L. Greene, on behalf of the EDNA and EDNAV Investigators
19 January 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.13998
Upcoming Special Section: Understanding the emergence, availability and consumption trends of no and low alcohol (‘NoLos’) beverage products
Development of the alcohol-free and low-alcohol drinks market in Great Britain from 2011 to 2022: Narrative timelines based on a documentary review of off-trade retail magazines and market intelligence reports
Nathan Critchlow, Amber Morgan, Kathryn Angus, Rebecca Howell, Niamh Fitzgerald, Inge Kersbergen, John Holmes
5 May 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14058
Call for Papers
This Special Section aims to bring together contributions that leverage the latest advancement in AI to solve substance use and addiction-related problems (including gambling and other behavioural addictions). We prefer studies that build upon deep neural networks, the algorithms that underly all the recent breakthroughs in AI (such as most modern generative AI models including ChatGPT and DALL-E), but we would also consider studies that are based on traditional machine learning methods such as random forest.
If you have any queries about this Special Section, please contact the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
This Special Section aims to bring together key emerging evidence on NoLos within and across research groups globally. Specifically, we welcome papers with empirical data from any country/region on:
- Data that characterises the emergence of NoLo products, product availability and accessibility, and market characteristics;
- Data reporting/analysing the marketing and advertising of NoLos [e.g., analysing strategies used by industries (alcohol and others) to promote the consumption of NoLos, studies on how NoLo marketing impacts use outcomes];
- Attitudes and action of teenagers below the legal drinking age and of teenagers’ parents concerning underage teenagers’ consumption of NoLo beverages with alcohol brands and packaging,
- Data reporting and exploring patterns of purchase and consumption and links with social, commercial and political determinants of health (tactics used by for-profit industries), and the drivers of purchase and consumption among particular population groups (young people, people who are pregnant; abstainers/people seeking to reduce their ethanol intake) with implications for harm/benefit and policy.
If you have any queries about this Special Section, please contact the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Drug and Alcohol Review - Clinician's Corner
Cannabis is the most widely used substance among individuals receiving treatment for opioid dependence in Australia [1]. Cannabis use is associated with a range of physical, mental and social harms to individuals [2]. Cannabis and/or cannabinoids are also known to be associated with a range of therapeutic benefits in areas such as chronic pain, epilepsy, palliative care and clients receiving chemotherapy [3]. Although evidence regarding the efficacy of cannabis for anxiety [4], sleep disorders [5] and chronic pain [6, 7] remains limited and inconsistent; these conditions are among the most frequently reported reasons for the therapeutic use of cannabis among people who use it [8, 9].
With the evolving landscape of medicinal cannabis regulation in Australia and globally [3, 10], there is a change in community perspectives in recent years regarding cannabis use, with increasingly positive views regarding legalisation and reduced attribution of harms [11]. While various clinicians' perspectives about medicinal cannabis have been investigated widely in different settings, little is known about how clinicians working in opioid treatment programs (OTP) perceive cannabis use in the context of opioid dependence treatment. Generally, systematic reviews have demonstrated that clinicians' support for medical cannabis legalisation has increased over the years [12, 13]. However there was only one study investigating attitudes of clinicians working in the addiction field toward medicinal cannabis and clients’ cannabis use, which showed mixed attitudes toward medicinal cannabis and cannabis use, with most of them believing cannabis use in “trading one addiction for another” and that cannabis does not alleviate cravings for other substances, however, some believed both cannabis and medicinal cannabis may potentially assist in managing conditions such as anxiety and insomnia in clients suffering from substance use disorder [14].
Despite the high prevalence of cannabis use among people in OTP, there are no prior published studies specifically examining the perspectives of OTP clinicians on this issue, including their observations of patterns of cannabis use, clinicians’ perception of the percentage of their clients who experienced either harms or benefits, confidence in intervention delivery, and attitudes toward treatment options such as harm reduction and medicinal cannabis.
In this cross-sectional online survey implemented in six public OTP services across New South Wales, we explored 162 OTP clinicians’ views (an estimated response rate of 54%) on patterns of cannabis use among their clients, the harms and benefits of cannabis use, the extent to which clinicians address cannabis use with their clients, and clinicians’ confidence in implementing interventions to address cannabis use and range of services they believe should be available for OTP clients, including the role of medicinal cannabis. Clinicians estimated that 56.1% of OTP clients had used cannabis in the past month and that 44.9% met criteria for cannabis dependence. They also identified that only 15.3% of clients self-identified their cannabis use as problematic, and 10.7% sought cannabis related treatment in the previous year. The most commonly reported harms associated with cannabis use identified by clinicians were cannabis dependence (46.5%), financial issues (37.5%) and increased tobacco use (33.1%) and the most frequently identified benefits of cannabis use were management of sleep problems (49.7%), improvements in mental health (48.3%), and relief of chronic pain symptoms (35.6%). 63.7% of clinicians supported increasing service efforts to address cannabis use, with no participants supporting a reduction in services. Most clinicians (77.4%) recommended integrating cannabis treatment interventions into OTP services rather than referring clients to external services. Interventions clinicians most strongly supported included withdrawal services (81%), harm reduction strategies (77.4%), counselling (74%) and medicinal cannabis interventions (59.8%). Despite the support, most clinicians feel low confidence in delivering inpatient withdrawal and medicinal cannabis, with only 6% reporting being ‘very confident’ in delivering medicinal cannabis treatment.
In summary, this study makes several unique contributions to the existing literature on clinicians' perspectives about cannabis use and provides the first insight into the perspectives of OTP clinicians regarding cannabis use among their clients. Previous research has largely focused on exploring clinicians' perspectives on the therapeutic potential of cannabis, its adverse effects and clinicians' level of knowledge [12, 13, 15], and their opinions on cannabis legalisation [12, 13]. This study explores not only addiction clinicians' attitudes towards cannabis use in OTP clients but also investigates their perspectives on patterns of cannabis use amongst their clients, perceived harms and benefits, clients' treatment-seeking behaviours, service delivery preferences, and clinicians' confidence in delivering cannabis-related interventions. These findings highlight that despite clinicians' general awareness about high levels of cannabis use amongst their OTP clients, there is uncertainty regarding the potential benefits or harms of cannabis use in OTP patients. There are low levels of clinician-reported treatment-seeking by clients, and low levels of confidence by many staff in implementing treatment interventions. These findings highlight the need for professional development and further research to understand OTP clients’ perspectives on cannabis use, to co-design a clinician-led client-centred service for addressing cannabis use in OTP clinics.
Laila Parvaresh1,2,3,4
1Drug and Alcohol Services, South Eastern Sydney Local Health District, Sydney, Australia
2Discipline of Addiction Medicine, Central Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
3School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, Australia
4Drug and Alcohol Clinical Research and Improvement Network, Sydney, Australia
Full paper is available Open Access:
Parvaresh L, Mills L, Gholami J, Jansen L, Jamshidi N, Baker K, Tremonti C, Tracy M, Dunlop A, Lintzeris N. Clinicians' Perspectives on Cannabis Use and Cannabis Treatment in Clients Undertaking Opioid Dependence Treatment. Drug Alcohol Rev. 2025 https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14074
References
- Centre for Alcohol and Other Drugs. NSW Clinical Guidelines Opioid Dependence. 2018.
- World Health Organization. The health and social effects of nonmedical cannabis use. 2016.
- Therapeutic Goods Administration. Guidance for the use of medicinal cannabis in Australia. 2017;1.
- Black E, Bruno R, Mammen K, Mills L, Siefried KJ, Deacon RM, et al. Substance use, socio‐demographic characteristics, and self‐rated health of people seeking alcohol and other drug treatment in New South Wales: baseline findings from a cohort study. Med J Aust. 2023;219:218-26.
- AminiLari M, Wang L, Neumark S, Adli T, Couban RJ, Giangregorio A, et al. Medical cannabis and cannabinoids for impaired sleep: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials. Sleep. 2022;45:zsab234.
- Banerjee S, McCormack S. Medical cannabis for the treatment of chronic pain: a review of clinical effectiveness and guidelines. 2019.
- Longo R, Oudshoorn A, Befus D. Cannabis for chronic pain: a rapid systematic review of randomized control trials. Pain Manag Nurs. 2021;22:141-9.
- Lintzeris N, Mills L, Abelev SV, Suraev A, Arnold JC, McGregor IS. Medical cannabis use in Australia: consumer experiences from the online cannabis as medicine survey 2020 (CAMS-20). Harm Reduct J. 2022;19:88.
- Mills L, Arnold JC, Suraev A, Abelev SV, Zhou C, Arkell TR, et al. Medical cannabis use in Australia seven years after legalisation: findings from the online Cannabis as Medicine Survey 2022–2023 (CAMS-22). Harm Reduct J. 2024;21:104.
- Hallinan CM, Bonomo YA. The rise and rise of medicinal cannabis, what now? Medicinal cannabis prescribing in Australia 2017–2022. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022;19:9853.
- Chiu V, Chan G, Hall W, Hides L, Leung J. Trends in cannabis use intention around the period of cannabis legalisation in Australia: An age‐period‐cohort model. Drug Alcohol Rev. 2023;42:337-45.
- Weisman JM, Rodríguez MJ. A systematic review of medical students’ and professionals’ attitudes and knowledge regarding medical cannabis. J Cannabis Res. 2021;3:47.
- Hordowicz M, Klimkiewicz A, Jarosz J, Wysocka M, Jastrzębska M. Knowledge, attitudes, and prescribing patterns of cannabis and cannabinoid-containing medicines among European healthcare workers: A systematic literature review. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2021;221:108652.
- Wildberger J, Katz EC. Attitudes toward medical marijuana among substance use clinicians. J Subst Use. 2019;24:614-8.
- Gardiner KM, Singleton JA, Sheridan J, Kyle GJ, Nissen LM. Health professional beliefs, knowledge, and concerns surrounding medicinal cannabis–a systematic review. PLoS One. 2019;14:e0216556.