[AUS] Ecstasy research - EDRS (formerly PDI) 2008

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MattD

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Researchers throughout Australia would like to talk to people who use ecstasy.

Interviews take about an hour and are strictly confidential and anonymous. You will be reimbursed for your time and expenses.

Please contact the researchers in your state or territory for further information or to make an appointment.

If you are in Adelaide
Call Nancy on 08 8274 3316 or 0434 604 969 or email [email protected] at the Drug and Alcohol Services South Australia (DASSA). If you reach voicemail please leave a first name and contact number and someone will get back to you.

If you are in Canberra or Darwin:
If you are in Canberra, contact Gab at UNSW by email ([email protected]) or call (02) 9385 0286 or SMS 0415 318 692. Interviews will be conducted in a location convenient for you. If you are in Darwin, contact Gab at UNSW by email ([email protected]) or on the numbers above.

If you are in Perth:
Call Candice on 08 9266 1636 at the National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University or email [email protected]. If you reach voice mail please leave a name and contact number and someone will get back to you. Interviews will be conducted at a central location of convenience.


If you are in Brisbane or the Gold Coast:
Call Eva on (07) 3346 4849 or 0434 606 981 at the Queensland Alcohol and Drug Research and Education Centre (QADREC), University of Queensland or email [email protected]. The majority of interviews will be held on Saturdays and Sundays at QADREC (School of Population Health, Level One, Herston Road, Herston) from 12 - 5pm, but if this is not suitable we will meet participants on week nights in an agreed public location. If you reach voice mail leave a name and contact number and someone will get back to you.

If you are in Sydney:
Call Matt on (02) 9385 0167 at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW, or SMS your details to 0423 167 547 or email [email protected]. Interviews will be conducted at the centre in Randwick or at a location convenient for you. If you reach voice mail leave a name and contact number and someone will get back to you.

If you are in Hobart:
Call or SMS contact the research team at the University of Tasmania on (03) 6226 7697 or 0409 803 813 to leave a name and contact number and someone will get back to you, or email [email protected]. Interviews will be conducted at a location convenient to you.


If you are in Melbourne:
Contact Fabian at the Burnet Institute on 0409 964 045 or email [email protected]. Interviews will be conducted at a location convenient to you.



ALL INFORMATION YOU PROVIDE WILL REMAIN CONFIDENTIAL
 
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If the OP could provide a little more info, that would be a great help.

That said, potential participants should be aware that the specific aims/research questions of the research may need to be withheld to ensure internal validity.
 
Even if the specific aims/research questions are withheld there usually needs to be some kind of information given about the direction of the research. Most ethics committee's would require at least some information about the project to be provided in the advertisement? Any more info would be great... And help to get you more participants.
 
Of course, just saying that what we receive from the OP might not necessarily be as detailed as we might like. Even ethics committees have been known to be sympathetic of partial disclosure (at least I think I recall somebody saying that in 1972). :D
 
Hi all,

I've cut and pasted a description for the study from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre's website - NDARC is the overall coordinator of this project. Recruitment for this year has finished, in case you were interested in participating.

The Ecstasy and Related Drugs Reporting System (EDRS; formerly the Party Drug Initiative, or PDI) is an ongoing project funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing and conducted every year in every state and territory. It is based on the IDRS methodology, and is co-ordinated by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre. The project provides a coordinated approach to the monitoring of data associated with ecstasy and related drugs (ERDs), such as methamphetamine, cocaine, GHB and ketamine in Australia. The study is intended to serve as a strategic early warning system that monitors emerging trends in ecstasy and related drug markets, to better prepare policy makers and the health and law enforcement sectors for issues likely to be of future concern. Like the IDRS, the EDRS is also designed to identify areas that require further and more detailed research.

The EDRS is concerned with monitoring trends in ecstasy and related drug markets, patterns of use, harms related to use and other related issues. It uses a similar methodology to the Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS), interviewing regular drug users and key experts, and examining indicator data. Regular ecstasy users are interviewed as they were identified as a group of ERDs users that are able to provide the required information on patterns of use, market characteristics, related harms and other issues associated with ERDs use. Key experts include party promoters, treatment providers, law enforcement personnel) indicator data include purity of drug seizures and overdose rates. These data sources are examined together to identify convergent trends in ERDs use and markets.
 
I hope that this research will surely make the the residents of Australia lead a healthy life creating examples for the other people consuming drugs.
 
In memory of multidisciplinary associations of psychedelic studies....! :) In memory of PhDs....! In memory of "doctors" of letters......of philosophy....! :)
 
Iv done the PDI but to be honest I doubt il do it again. The government only wants intelligence on us so they can inact new and harsher laws.
 
dicey said:
is this research ongoing?
Click to expand...

It's an annual project. The data is collected over a couple of months around the May-June period across Australia. First results usually emerge in November, and the published reports tend to come out around March. Then it all begins again. This allows the study to get a sense of what is changing in drug use patterns and markets across time, although they do also add new sections when they think something different is worth asking about.

To NDARC's credit, all the reports are freely available online - so if you are interested in what comes of the study, have a look here. The reports are national and by state/territory, and they have bulletins which are a lot less to read in one go too.

static_mind said:
Iv done the PDI but to be honest I doubt il do it again. The government only wants intelligence on us so they can inact new and harsher laws.
Click to expand...

I don't personally believe this is the case, though I can't speak for 'government intelligence'. I'd be interested in why you feel that way static_mind - is there any examples where this has happened?
 
static_mind said:
Iv done the PDI but to be honest I doubt il do it again. The government only wants intelligence on us so they can inact new and harsher laws.
Click to expand...
i do not not live in Australia ,but i beleive you are correct static_mind this quote says it all

The study is intended to serve as a strategic early warning system that monitors emerging trends in ecstasy and related drug markets, to better prepare policy makers and the health and law enforcement sectors for issues likely to be of future concern.

just my .02
 
MattD said:
. The study is intended to serve as a strategic early warning system that monitors emerging trends in ecstasy and related drug markets, to better prepare policy makers and the health and Law enforcement! sectors for issues likely to be of future concern. .
Click to expand...


Law enforcement.....

I took part in the study. The next year its clear that xtc lke drugs are flooding the market. Xtc was moved to a class A drug. When was the last time any drug info was used other then to punish us.

The government has never cared about drug users. They sure as hell dont care now. I do believe the PDI was started for the right reasons, and the people who do the interviews has the best intentions.

But really people think for a second. If the goverment sees a drug trend coming, what sort of action do you think they will take? You may score $30 for travel expenses, but now if your caught with E your going to get in a whole lot more trouable.

Im really sorry people, truely I am. Maybe if fools like myself hadnt trusted that the government might have had some good motives, there would be alot less people with criminal records.

For every users sake. Don't partake in the PDI, their intentions may be pure but in reality the results will be for the worse.

Im open for debate.
 
I've been having thinking about this issue for a long time now. Working as a researcher in this field means I'm one of those people you are referring to that has good intentions - but in your view, shouldn't be trusted because the information we report may be used in a way that hurts drug users, rather than helps them.

Although researchers cannot guarantee how their published reports will be used, we can, and should, choose our words very carefully - to both reflect the data we have collected and to do so without undue bias for or against any of the people involved.

The question I think we should ask is this: aren't law enforcement already using a variety of methods to get the intelligence they need about drug markets and how to intercept them? As much as some of this information may occasionally be new to law enforcement, I give them a bit more credit. I think they are well resourced and smart enough to get what they need from their own methods (not excluding monitoring sites like these).

However, the health and social interventions related to harmful drug use patterns don't have as much data or the resources to get it to see new trends and respond to them adequately. If more people are using meth dependently, for example, and the EDRS/PDI (and the injecting study, IDRS) picked that up - then health services can use it as evidence to respond to that group. They see if this links in with what they are seeing at their treatment centres too.

So we can say, 'don't support all research because it is possible that it may be used in a way we don't like'. But it means all the possible positive things that research can contribute are also impossible. Everyone thinking about participating has this choice - make sure you are as informed as possible about the study so you can make it.

If you believe that you don't want to take the risk of providing any information law enforcement could use at all - and this is your right - then you can actually still support research. You just have to think carefully about it.

For example, as an interviewer, I have had a few careful research participants - happy to participate but gladly use their right to skip sensitive questions, for example, about criminal activities and drug dealing. I always make sure people understand that every question is voluntary, even in a paid interview. This is best practice.

As for your first point, static_mind, MDMA's legal status hasn't changed in Australia over the time period of the PDI/EDRS (since 2003). From memory, availability and price have been fairly stable too, with purity always being a bit 'confused'!

Yes I think over the past 5 years there has been a move across Australia to have tougher law enforcement (eg. sniffer dogs, drug driving testing, etc). I can't say for certain but I believe this is a co-incidence. What EDRS has been able to do - for example - is track the use of sniffer dogs and people's reactions, and shows some of the negatives of such a method. The sort of info that can be used to counteract increased police powers... potentially!

Also, very open to debate :)
 
^^^great post! I agree that this type of research helps drug users more than it hurts them; cops place a higher value on drug seizures rather than self-report surveys in deciding their policies. Moreover, they would probably see trends of increased drug supply and/or use in seizures before they turned up in surveys.
 
With regards to the laws I was talking about QLD state laws.

http://news.smh.com.au/national/tougher-drug-laws-passed-in-qld-20080214-1sd0.html

http://www.thevalleybrief.com.au/archives/37

"maximum penalties for the unlawful possession, supply and trafficking of drugs ecstasy or MDMA and PMA or death would increase from 20 to 25 years under the Drugs Misuse Amendment Bill 2007."

Has there been a point where drug users have been able to trust the government? We all know how the government feels about us and drugs, why should I all of a sudden believe that for once some good will come from what I say?

If the police intelligence is good enough and accurate enough for them to not rely on the PDI then shouldn't the health services be just as happy to rely on the same infomation? What's the point of the PDI at all?

Im not really sure what the deal is with dogs so I could be wrong. But arnt the dogs at alot of festivals in NSW, any infomation relateing the the neg effects of dogs doesn't seem to be of any value if no one is listing. (keep in mind I dont know alot about them)

They don't have a very good track record in relation to us.



And this is kind of off topic a bit but did the government really change the PDI (Party Drug Inititive) to the ERDS (Extacy and Related Drugs) solely because they don't think they should be related to party drugs? Something so petty as a name (off topic but I do think its a bit over the top with political correctness) ( it will always be th ePDI to me!)

Just want to point out that I don't have a problem with the people doing the interviews. I just think the government is useing them as pawns. Iv read a couple of the PDI reports and I do agree that the are quite unbias, infact I think there quite impressive how unbias they are. I thought the PDI was a great idea, iv changed my mind

When was the last time the gov used the PDI info for good in relation to users?

(sorry if im rambeling iv been drinking)
 
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