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Editorial

Gender Differences in Alcohol Research: A Focus on How Men and Women Are Studied in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand
Megan Cook, Amy Pennay, Sarah MacLean, Gabriel Caluzzi, Benjamin Riordan, Amanda Cooklin, Alexandra Torney, Sarah Callinan
19 May 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14083

Comprehensive Review

Portuguese Validated Versions of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test: A Systematic Review of Academic and Grey Literature
Diogo Phalempin Cardoso, Daniela Oliveira, Beatriz Antunes, Rosa Saraiva, Kathryn Angus, Eugenia Gallardo, Frederico Rosário
27 May 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14081

Review

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

Original Papers

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

‘It's Hard to Look Past the Accessibility’: Service Provider Perspectives on Implementing Telehealth for Alcohol and Other Drug Counselling as a Health Service Innovation
Ashlea Bartram, Md Abdul Ahad, April Long, Dan I. Lubman, Ele Morrison, Jill Rundle, Nicole Lee, Scott Wilson, Jacqueline Bowden
19 June 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.70000

‘You Can Sort of Justify Having That Drink’: Australian Young Adults' Perspectives on the Appeal and Influence of ‘Better for You’ Alcohol Products
Ashleigh Haynes, Anna Denejkina, Madelyn Sands, Pamela Wong, Zenobia Talati, Danica Keric, Julia Stafford, Ainslie Sartori, Gael Myers, Jane Martin, Tahnee McCausland, Melanie Wakefield, Helen Dixon
19 June 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.70001

Psychological Distress Trajectories in Residential Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment
Emma L. Hatton, Peter J. Kelly, Laura Robinson, Alison Beck, Mei L. Lee, Robert Stirling, Lauren Mullaney, Michele Campbell, Briony Larance
17 June 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14099

Vaping cessation strategies and triggers for relapse amongst people from New Zealand who have vaped
Mehdi Rahimi, Bodo Lang, Lion Shahab, Jamie Brown, Amanda Palmer, Joya Kemper, Chris Bullen, George Laking, Vili Nosa, Varsha Parag, Natalie Walker
11 June 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14061

‘I Think That Is a Big Step From Here to There’: Exploring the Views of Service Providers About Delivering Drug- and Alcohol-Related Health Services to Aboriginal People in Rural New South Wales
Raechel Wallace, Simon Clay, Anthony Shakeshaft, Sara Farnbach
8 June 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14096

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
Katinka van de Ven, Erin Cunningham, Phillip J. Tully, Alison Ritter
8 June 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14095

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

Changes in Drug-Induced Hospitalisations and Deaths During the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Australia
Nicola Man, Jane Akhurst, Olivia Price, Agata Chrzanowska, Rachel Sutherland, Paul M. Dietze, Raimondo Bruno, Louisa Degenhardt, Wing See Yuen, Lauren Moran, Louise Tierney, Amy Peacock
8 June 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14088

Hydromorphone Hopes: A Qualitative Study of People Initiating Supervised Short-Acting Injectable Opioid Treatment in Australia
Jake Rance, Vendula Belackova, James Bell, Adrian J. Dunlop, Nadine Ezard, Marianne Jauncey, Nicholas Lintzeris, Eugenia Oviedo-Joekes, Alison Ritter, Darren M. Roberts, Craig Rodgers, Krista J. Siefried, John Strang, Willem van den Brink, Carla Treloar
3 June 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14092

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 in New York City
Mehrdad Khezri, Sarah Kimball, Chenziheng Allen Weng, Courtney McKnight, Don Des Jarlais
3 June 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14093

Estimating the Prevalence of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder in Australia
Tracey W. Tsang, Daniel H. Rosenblatt, Indra Parta, Elizabeth J. Elliott
2 June 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14082

‘Moderation Is the Holy Grail’: The Acceptability of ‘Sober Curious’ Tools for Alcohol Reduction Among Midlife Women
Belinda Lunnay, Sarah MacLean, Tonda Hughes, Amy Pennay, Paul R. Ward
30 May 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14085

Exploring Socio-Demographic Characteristics of Caregivers Who Indicated a Child Was Substantially Affected by Others' Drinking in Australia
Cassandra Hopkins, Sandra Kuntsche, Robyn Dwyer, Heng Jiang, Anne-Marie Laslett
27 May 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14087

Contents and Time-Course of Falsified Alprazolam Detections in New South Wales, Australia
Janette L. Smith, Thanjira Jiranantakan, Una Cullinan, Christopher Ewers, Darren M. Roberts, Jared A. Brown
23 May 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14068

Estimating the Prevalence and Correlates of Problematic Alcohol Use Among Patients Treated for Illicit Substance Disorder in France, 2012–2022
Eric Janssen, Mike Vuolo, Sophie Véron, Ivette Flores Laffont
19 May 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14078

E-cigarette use among gender and sexuality diverse (LGBTQA+) adolescents in Australia: The case for LGBTQA+ affirmative harm reduction
Sasha Bailey, Emma L. Barrett, Scarlett Smout, Lucinda Grummitt, Lyra Egan, Lauren Gardner, Emily A. Stockings, Maree Teesson, Yael Perry, Nicola C. Newton
18 May 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14052

Alcohol Use in the Early Postpartum Period: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study to Understand the Role of Self-Efficacy
Sarah Dauber, Janardan Devkota, Alexa Beacham, Allison West, Minerva Francis, Timothy Regan, Johannes Thrul
13 May 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14076

Alcohol Use Disparities Among Transgender and Nonbinary Adults: An Intersectional Investigation
Ryan C. Shorey, D. A. Briley, Jane Hereth, michael munson, Jaclyn S. Fishbach, Joseph R. Cohen
13 May 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14077

Applying a Modified Version of the Prediction of Alcohol Withdrawal Severity Scale in a Canadian Community Withdrawal Management Setting
Hannah Crepeault, Nicole Cowan, M. Eugenia Socias, Niloofar Riazi, Alison Knill, Avneet Khela, Evan Wood, Lianping Ti
6 May 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14075

Clinicians' Perspectives on Cannabis Use and Cannabis Treatment in Clients Undertaking Opioid Dependence Treatment
Laila Parvaresh, Llewellyn Mills, Jaleh Gholami, Louisa Jansen, Nazila Jamshidi, Kate Baker, Christopher Tremonti, Marguerite Tracy, Adrian Dunlop, Nicholas Lintzeris
5 May 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14074

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder: The Caring and Financial Burden to Caregivers—A Scoping Review
Josie Tait, Anita Gibbs, Jessica McCormack, Holly Wilson, Joanna Ting Wai Chu
4 May 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14071

Understanding Drug and Alcohol Staff Perspectives on the Barriers and Facilitators to Drug Checking: A Qualitative Study
Nina Pocuca, Brodie C. Dakin, Cheneal Puljević, Cameron Francis, Daniel Stjepanović, Anthony Barnett, Leanne Hides
4 May 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14073

Parental Alcohol Problems and Lack of Adult Support During Childhood—Consequences for Subjective and Objective Social Connection in Adulthood
Siri Håvås Haugland, Lisbeth Gallefoss, Aleksander Hals-Lydersen, John-Kåre Vederhus
29 April 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14070

Defining terminology and outcome measures for evaluating overdose response technology: An international Delphi study
William Rioux, Dylan Viste, Navid Sedaghat, Nathan Rider, Joseph Tay Wee Tek, Melissa Perri, David G. Schwartz, Kim Ritchie, Giuseppe Carrà, Stephanie Carreiro, Oona Kreig, Gabriela Marcu, Joseph Arthur, Joanne Cogdell, Mike Brown, Tyler Marshall, S. Monty Ghosh
25 April 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14055

Brief Reports

Susceptibility to Hepatitis B Virus Infection Among People Who Inject Drugs in Montreal, Canada
Olivia Price, Sarah Larney, Valerie Martel-Laferrière, Julie Bruneau, Brendan Harney
3 June 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14091

Patterns of Acute Gamma-Hydroxybutyrate Harms Requiring Ambulance Attendance: Should Greater Focus Be on Regional Areas?
Naomi Beard, James Wilson, Bosco C. Rowland, Ziad Nehme, Dan I. Lubman, Rowan P. Ogeil
28 May 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14086

The prevalence and correlates of self-reported cannabis use for medicinal, dual and recreational motives in Australia: Findings from the National Drug Strategy Household Survey 2022/2023
Danielle Dawson, Gary Chan, Daniel Stjepanović, Valentina Lorenzetti, Wayne D. Hall, Janni Leung
1 May 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14062

Letter to the Editor

Analyses Updated to 2022–23 on Australian Attitudes Towards Supervised Injecting Facilities
Zachary Lloyd, Samantha Colledge-Frisby, Nicholas Taylor, Michael Livingston, Marianne Jauncey, Amanda Roxburgh
4 June 2025 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.14089

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..

Click here for more information.

 

 

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..

Click here for more information.

Drug and Alcohol Review - Clinician's Corner

Clinicians' perspectives on cannabis use and cannabis treatment in clients undertaking opioid dependence treatment

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 Parvaresh^1,2,3,4

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

1. Centre for Alcohol and Other Drugs. NSW Clinical Guidelines Opioid Dependence. 2018.
2. World Health Organization. The health and social effects of nonmedical cannabis use. 2016.
3. Therapeutic Goods Administration. Guidance for the use of medicinal cannabis in Australia. 2017;1.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. Banerjee S, McCormack S. Medical cannabis for the treatment of chronic pain: a review of clinical effectiveness and guidelines. 2019.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. 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.
12. Weisman JM, Rodríguez MJ. A systematic review of medical students’ and professionals’ attitudes and knowledge regarding medical cannabis. J Cannabis Res. 2021;3:47.
13. 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.
14. Wildberger J, Katz EC. Attitudes toward medical marijuana among substance use clinicians. J Subst Use. 2019;24:614-8.
15. 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.