Current Projects

The key aim of this study is to examine the outcomes associated with injecting drug users (IDU) in Australia. The focus of the study is on record linkage as a means of developing objective measures of the outcomes associated with injecting drug use in Victoria that can serve as a model for Australia more widely. The proposal is based on establishing a large sample of young (ie <28 years) IDU and using information from this sample to examine their health and social outcomes prospectively, for the purposes of this project, over a period of four years. The focus on IDU generally (including amphetamines and heroin), as opposed to heroin use alone (as is the case in most Australian studies of a similar nature), will provide an evidence base for some of the key policy questions that have emerged in relation to the changing dynamics of Australian drug markets (eg the effects of emergent drug use practices around amphetamines in the context of a fluctuating heroin market).

Expected completion date: 2010

More information:

pauld@burnet.edu.au

Title: Integration and Implementation Sciences: Providing Concepts and Methods for Synthesising Disciplinary and Practice-based Knowledge and Connecting Research with Practice

Investigator: Gabriele Bammer

Overview:

DPMP, like other research programs addressing complex issues, needs effective ways to bring knowledge from different disciplines and from practice to bear. It also requires the most up-to-date techniques for influencing policy and other practice change. Integration and Implementation Sciences provides the necessary concepts and methods and is also intensely involved in their enhancement.

Five primary methods for integrating knowledge have been identified: dialogue-based techniques, particular approaches to modeling, using a guiding vision, building a specific product and developing and using a common metric (such as assigning monetary value, disability-adjusted life-years ie DALYs, or the Ecological Footprint).

In addition, Integration and Implementation Sciences works on four ways of connecting research with policy and practice: effective information provision, co-production of knowledge, engagement in political, policy and practice processes, and advocacy. This is coupled with detailed understanding of how to make change happen.

Effective integration and implementation also require attention to be given to:

Underpinning values and their effects on research and practice,
How issues and problems are framed and boundaries around them set,
How ignorance and uncertainty are dealt with, and
Concepts and techniques for effective collaboration.

The Integration and Implementation Sciences group is based at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, ANU College of Medicine and Health Sciences, The Australian National University. In developing the Integration and Implementation Sciences field, we collaborate with sister groups on “systemic intervention” (Professor Gerald Midgley and Dr Wendy Gregory at the Institute for Environmental Science and Research (ESR) Ltd in New Zealand) and on “transdisciplinarity” (Professor Gertrude Hirsch Hadorn, Dr Christian Pohl and Dr Christoph Kueffer at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich – ETH-Zurich). We also host an international Integration and Implementation Sciences Network.

The ANU Integration and Implementation Sciences group has six members (Gabriele Bammer, David McDonald, Lorrae van Kerkhoff, Alice Roughley, Peter Deane, Caryn Anderson). Not all are directly involved in or funded by DPMP, but all work on projects that are relevant to enhancing DPMP processes.

Expected completion date: 2011

More information:

http://www.anu.edu.au/iisn/

Title: An analysis of Australian illicit drug policy coordination

Investigators: Caitlin Hughes, Michael Lodge and Alison Ritter

Advisor: David McDonald

Overview:

Coordination has become one of the key objectives and mechanisms to delivering effective drug policies in Australia. Since 1985 there have been numerous changes in the governance structures and mechanisms for coordinating the National Drug Strategy. Yet, there has been a dearth of attention to how and where coordination occurs and the capacity of current structures and processes for delivering their desired objectives.

This project aims to examine illicit drug policy coordination through the lens of internationally endorsed good governance principles. We will conduct a literature review of best practice coordination and good governance, devise a tool for measuring the application of good governance principles and undertake a survey of key stakeholders involved in illicit drug policy coordination. In so doing we seek to contribute to debate on the current strengths and weaknesses of national coordination processes and to highlight potential directions for improving Australian illicit drug policy coordination.

Expected completion date: February 2009

More information:

caitlin.hughes@unsw.edu.au

Title: Problem-Oriented and Partnership Policing: LEAPS Evaluation

Chief Investigators: Paul Mazerolle and Lorraine Mazerolle

Research Assistant: Patricia Ferguson and Simon Jackson

Overview:

This demonstration project involves an assessment of the impact on ecstasy and related drugs (ERDs) since the inception of a Queensland Police Service-led problem-oriented and partnership policing (POPP) initiative referred to as Liquor Enforcement And Proactive Strategies (LEAPS). The geographic focus for the project is an inner-city suburb of Brisbane, Fortitude Valley, which has an active club and bar scene and high use of ERDs. This area has generated a disproportionate level of focus from police due to the higher rates of violent crime and disorder occurring in the district. The project will also examine the operation of LEAPS at various comparison locations.

The LEAPS initiative is relevant to both alcohol and ERD problems, as it seeks to make the club and bar environments safer for all patrons, regardless of what substance they may be using. LEAPS embraces harm reduction values and utilises low impact enforcement on licensed premises not complying with mandatory harm reduction measures (under law). The intervention is clearly a POPP initiative, as its purpose is to scan Fortitude Valley for crime and safety problems, analyse the dynamics of problems located, respond to the problems in a relevant and proportionate manner, and assess the outcome of their response in terms of a lasting effect.

The main components of the evaluation are:

A longitudinal analysis of the impact of LEAPS, both in the Fortitude Valley site, and two comparison sites;
The relative impact of LEAPS operations and the Queensland Government’s Ice-Breaker educational media campaign on frequent clubbers’ attitudes to ERDs; and
An economic analysis of LEAPS and the Queensland Government's Ice-Breaker media campaign to assess the costs and benefits of these initiatives.

The evaluation is being informed by a range of data sources including official reported crime data, qualitative interviews with key stakeholders, surveys of frequent patrons of Fortitude Valley venues, surveys of place managers (i.e. publicans and venue supervisors), observations of LEAPS activities, and unobtrusive observations of the included venues.

Expected completion date: December 2008

More information:

p.mazerolle@griffith.edu.au

Title: Structural analysis of the Australian heroin drought

Investigators: Jonathan Caulkins and Peter Reuter

Collaborator: Martin Bouchard

Overview:

The disruption of the Australian heroin markets that was recognized starting in late 2000/early 2001 was the most severe and prolonged of any documented disruption of a major drug market in a developed country. Before this “drought”, heroin use was associated with the great bulk of drug-related harm in the country, and key indicators such as overdose rates fell precipitously and have never returned to their pre-drought levels. Hence, there is considerable worldwide interest in Australia to understand what caused this singular “success”. The research team has tapped a variety of novel data indicators to develop a coherent empirical argument concerning likely causes, with results being written up as three separate papers: one analysing the causes of this event, a second describing what one would expect to see from a severe market disruption (to avoid a replication of specious arguments and misunderstanding concerning this event), and a third analysing Canada’s heroin markets, which have played a prominent role in the literature arguing that AFP actions could not have been an important driver of the drought.

Expected completion date: October 2008

More information:

alison.ritter@unsw.edu.au

Title: Opioid Pharmacotherapy Review

Investigators: Alison Ritter, Jenny Chalmers, Nick Lintzeris, Alex Wodak, Richard Mattick, Bob Batey

Overview:

This project will determine whether the availability, accessibility and affordability of Australia’s pharmacotherapy programs for the treatment of opioid dependence meet demand. The project will establish a set of models representative of the major care pathways taken by pharmacotherapy patients Australia-wide. For each pathway we will estimate the costs borne by the patient and state and federal governments. We will also assess the accessibility of each pathway to those with an opioid dependency and identify which patient groups are best suited to the pathway. In addition, we will build a sophisticated model of supply and demand for pharmacotherapy treatment in Australia so as to estimate current capacity and identify areas of unmet demand and over-capacity. Using our set of ‘idealised’ care-pathway and patient group models as a basis, the model will incorporate the dynamics of supply and demand and build in as much of what we know as possible, such as the common practice of cycling in and out of treatment.
Funded by the ANCD and DPMP

Expected completion date: October 2008

More information:

j.chalmers@unsw.edu.au

Reducing the Methamphetamine Problem in Australia: Evaluating Innovative Partnerships Between Police, Pharmacies and Other Third Parties

Chief Investigators: Janet Ransley and Jackie Drew

Investigators: Lorraine Mazerolle, Peter Grabosky, Alison Ritter, James McBroom, Roberta Julian, David Bradley

Research Assistant: Ingrid McGuffog

Overview:

This project will explore the role of partnerships between the police and third parties (e.g. retail pharmacies) in reducing methamphetamine problems in Queensland and Victoria. The project objectives are:

To document the creation, nature and characteristics of partnerships between the police and third parties (e.g. retail pharmacies) that seek to reduce sales of pseudoephedrine and control the methamphetamine problem in Queensland and Victoria;

To understand the wider impact of law enforcement efforts to reduce pseudoephedrine sales in terms of treatment, prevention and harm reduction across Queensland and Victoria;

To evaluate the impact of drug law enforcement partnerships with third parties (including Queensland’s “Project Stop”) on the methamphetamine market in Queensland and Victoria;

To assess any displacement (spatial, temporal, tactical, offence), diffusion of crime control benefits, or other unintended consequences of these partnerships (including “Project Stop”).

We will undertake interviews with police, treatment providers, incarcerated offenders and third party partners; we will conduct surveys of pharmacists and university students; we will analyse laws and regulations; and we will use police data and interviews to assess the nature and impact (both intended and unintended) of these partnerships. Our project seeks to contribute to the drug law enforcement evidence base and help police to better control drug problems in Australia.

Expected completion date: November 2010

More information:

j.drew@griffith.edu.au

Cannabis Diversion Model

Investigators: Caitlin Hughes, Alison Ritter, Jennifer Badham

Overview:

Drug diversion has become a popular policy intervention used for responding to illicit drug users in Australia. Much of the drug diversion programs focus on cannabis, a drug used by 33% Australians (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2008) and that accounts for 74% illicit drug offences (Australian Crime Commission 2006). Drug diversion aims to reduce future drug use (through educating and/or treating drug use), increase the efficiency of the criminal justice system and reduce the costs of responding to drug use. Yet there is limited understanding to date on how to improve the designs of drug diversion systems and to facilitate the best possible outcomes.

This project builds a system dynamics model of cannabis diversion in Australia. It includes all existing responses to cannabis users, through both cannabis diversion and traditional court responses and models their impacts on future crime and the cost to the criminal justice system. In so doing it provides a tool to aid consideration of plausible policy scenarios: what would be the impact of changing the number of cannabis users diverted, the type of programs used, improving the effectiveness of cannabis interventions or removing breach conditions for diversion programs? What types of changes would be most cost-effective? This will enhance the capacity for evidence-based decisions on the design of Australian cannabis diversion systems.

Expected completion date: December 2008

More information:

caitlin.hughes@unsw.edu.au

Developing a model to assess the economic consequences of cannabis policy options

Investigators: Marian Shanahan, Alison Ritter, Wendy Swift, Rosalie Pacula, and Maree Teesson

Overview:

Changes to the status of cannabis, ranging from legalisation through to tougher enforcement of prohibition are frequently posed. To date, the debate has centered on arguments associated with liberty and harm, but not on economic analyses. The aims of this project are to: estimate the current societal costs related to cannabis; and investigate the economic costs and benefits of two alternate policy options in New South Wales. The potential economic benefits of the project reside in the ability to provide governments with information to assist with cannabis policy decisions through:

the direct comparison in economic terms of three different models for the regulation of cannabis;
providing a model for estimating economic costs associated with cannabis which can be applied to other illicit drugs;
improving the evidence-base for policy decision-making in Australia.

Funded by ARC and DPMP

Expected completion date: July 2010

More information:

m.shanahan@unsw.edu.au

Public Opinion Surveys: Review

Investigators: Francis Matthew-Simmons and Alison Ritter

Overview:

This study aims to review previous research into public attitudes toward illicit drug issues.

Knowing the public’s opinion on drug use issues, and illicit drugs policy, is important for two reasons.

Firstly, the threat of punishment alone is not always enough to deter individuals from committing illegal behaviour such as drug use. A successfully implemented law requires that the public make the choice to follow it, and the likelihood of an individual obeying a law is greatly dependent on the individual’s attitude towards that law. Having an accurate idea of public opinion towards illicit drug laws will result in laws that are more likely to be obeyed.

Secondly, research has shown that public opinion can have a strong effect on the direction of government policies, particularly on those issues where there is a high public salience. However, public debates around illicit drugs are often characterised by rhetoric, hyperbole and hysteria, and can involve vocal minorities ‘representing’ the public through the media and interest groups. Disentangling the opinion of the silent majority from this vocal minority will help promote a more rational public debate.

This study will identify, analyse and critique previous research in the area, and hopes to provide a general understanding of what the Australian public thinks about illicit drug issues.

Expected completion date: October 2008

More information:

francis.simmons@unsw.edu.au

Developing a common metric to evaluate policy options (the Harm Index)

Chief Investigator: Alison Ritter

Overview:

One of the challenges for drug policy research is being able to compare policy options and outcomes. Comparisons between regions or countries, within regions and over time, and across domains of policy initiative: law enforcement, treatment, harm reduction and prevention are all relevant. The development of indexes, such as the UK Drug Harm Index or the UNODC Illicit Drug Index is a way to systematically enable such comparisons. The DPMP is also developing a comparative index.

DPMP is concerned with evaluating drug policy. In the main, DPMP is using models or simulations, as a primary method to evaluate policy options. It is intended that the simulations can derive reasonable and plausible effect sizes for the impacts of different drug policies. For example a model that can estimate the effect of a new compulsory treatment program for all cannabis users detected by police; or a model to compare a new treatment for methamphetamine dependence with the effect of law enforcement directed at seizing methamphetamine supplies. If we want to build models that can compare policies, we need outcome measures that can be used in the models.

It is in this context that DPMP is engaged in a project to develop a policy outcome index. The purpose of the DPMP policy outcome index is to compare different policy options and their effects, using a common metric.

The method applied for the DPMP Index involves determining an approach to outcomes, identifying all the outcomes, and quantifying them through the application of a social cost framework. Because each drug is different in its prevalence, consumption and most importantly harms, the Index developed by us is specific to individual drugs. In addition we distinguish between dependent and non-dependent use to manage the huge variance in harms associated with patterns of use. The feasibility of the DPMP approach has been examined. We conclude that the Index is feasible and worth further research endeavour.

The development and use of the DPMP index is an ongoing program of research.

More information:

alison.ritter@unsw.edu.au

A Conceptual Analysis of Drug Policies

Chief Investigator: Craig McDonald

Overview:

There is a portfolio of policies that have been developed to address issues created by illicit drug use. Some of these are bundled to create comprehensive national drug strategies. Each policy takes a particular view of the 'drug system' that it attempts to change and each embodies a particular view of how that system will be improved by the policy. These views are not always explicit, and it is not clear whether the underlying human system is conceived similarly by the range of different policies.

This project is attempting to reveal the underlying system that these policies assume. The research uses conceptual analysis methods from the Information Sciences discipline to build ontologies of the policies. (In the Information Sciences 'ontology' refers to a specification of the concepts in a domain and it is used define the structure of computer-based data, information and knowledge management systems.) The project develops an ontology for each policy and identifies the critical assumptions embedded separately in each. It then compares the ontologies revealing similarities and differences between their conceptualisations of the underlying human system in which they are all intervening.

The results of this work can lead to:

a re-think and integration of some illicit drug policies based on a more informed alignment of their underlying concepts
a better appreciation of how drug policies view the system they impact, so allowing policy to be critiqued against other views and models of the drug system
a better theoretical understanding of the nature of policy and its relationship to its target system
an evaluation and refinement of the ontological analysis method.

Expected completion date: October 2008

More information:

Craig.McDonald@Canberra.edu.au

Integrated Modelling Project

Chief Investigator: Pascal Perez

Consultants: Anne Dray and Bohdan Durnota

Overview:

The Integrated Modelling Project aims to build user-friendly and web-compliant simulation models integrating law enforcement, treatment and harm reduction aspects of illicit drug use and markets. Currently, a prototype is being developed using google-map facilities to select specific urban areas from the web and then to run an updated version of the SIMDRUG model automatically.

More information:

pascal.perez@anu.edu.au

SimHero – modelling the impacts of policing strategies in the context of a major heroin shortage

Chief Investigator: Pascal Perez

Consultant: Anne Dray

Advisors: Alison Ritter and Lorraine Mazerolle

Overview:

The SimHero Project aims to simulate and compare three different street-level policing interventions in the context of a fluctuating illicit drug supply. A first artificial crime experiment using SimHero consisted in reproducing and analysing the heroin drought in Australia. Currently, a paper has been submitted to the Journal of Experimental Criminology. SimHero will now be adapted and fed into our Integrated Modelling Project (detailed above).

More information:

pascal.perez@anu.edu.au

Examining the economic consequences of different types of law enforcement interventions directed towards methamphetamine

Investigators: Alison Ritter, David Bright, Jenny Chalmers, & Caitlin Hughes

Overview:

Law enforcement interventions against methamphetamine can occur at any level of the supply chain:

End product manufacture off-shore
Precursor importation
End product importation
Domestic precursor attainment
Domestic manufacture
Domestic distribution

Where should law enforcement invest its resources? This project aims to determine the level of potential greatest investment for Australian law enforcement. This will be assessed through estimating the burden of law enforcement on the criminal networks: that is, the extent to which law enforcement efforts increase the costs to criminals who manufacture, distribute and supply methamphetamine. The project is not an evaluation of the current cost-effectiveness of law enforcement. Rather, it is a macro-level analysis that will provide comparisons of the economic impact of law enforcement on each level of the supply chain.

The results from the project will inform best investment returns for policing practice; best investment returns for future research; gaps in knowledge and information; and policing practice through providing analysis of costs incurred in criminal activity.

Expected completion date: December 2009

More information:

david.bright@unsw.edu.au

Policy Practice Projects

DPMP is conducting ‘policy practice projects’. These projects involve dealing with immediate issues confronting Australian policy-makers. Policy practice means engaging directly with policy-makers and providing policy support on specific issues with which they are grappling.

Over the five years of DPMP, we will complete at least one Policy Practice Project with each jurisdiction. The outputs of the policy practice projects will depend on the nature of the problem that the jurisdiction is grappling with, but may include written or verbal policy advice to the organisation in question, a model, literature reviews and so on. Policy practice projects will be publicly disseminated as appropriate.

The aims of the Policy Practice projects are:

To provide policy support
To apply policy research findings
To evaluate DPMP tools and methods as they are used in practice
To improve the Australian policy processes and quality of decisions

NSW Police

Project title: Identifying current and alternate police options for intervening with MDMA

DPMP Researchers: Caitlin Hughes, Alison Ritter

NSW Police Collaborator: Fiona Christian

Overview:

There is a lack of knowledge about the offending profiles of MDMA offenders. Data from the Ecstasy and related Drugs Reporting System (EDRS) suggests MDMA users are not a criminally active population, but at the same time rates of reported incidents involving MDMA in NSW are increasing. This project aims to identify current and alternate police options for intervening with MDMA offenders. It will use the NSW Police database to examine the nature of MDMA offending in NSW (and a comparative group of cannabis offenders). Then it will use a literature review and interviews with NSW Police officers to identify and explore the feasibility and desirability of adopting alternate evidence-based policing options for intervening with MDMA offenders in NSW.

Expected completion date: June 2009

More information:

caitlin.hughes@unsw.edu.au

ACT Health

Project title: Consultation and modelling in relation to the ACT AOD treatment service system

DPMP Researcher: Alison Ritter

ACT Health: Helene Delaney

Overview:

ACT Health is introducing changes to the structure of alcohol and drug services in the ACT. A number of previous reviews have documented the issues associated with services, and it appears that there is good knowledge regarding the existing services, and also good knowledge about better practice that could be achieved. DPMP is contributing to the process in the following ways:

Provide evidence, as required, to demonstrate the body of knowledge underpinning the new directions;
Assist with conducting forums and consultations with service providers;
Assist with strategic thinking about the implementation challenges associated with change;
Be available as source of confidential and independent advice;
Develop models that may be used to assist with scenario planning.

More information:

alison.ritter@unsw.edu.au

Victoria Police

Project title: The development of a Harm Index for use by Victoria Police

DPMP Researcher: Alison Ritter

Victoria Police: Amelie Hunter

Overview:

The Victoria Police are developing a Harm Index. The Index will quantify the harm from illicit drug use and drug-related crime. The Harm Index will identify (at a local command level) drug types and drug offences causing most harm; and provide an ongoing measurement to track changes over time. The DPMP is engaged as consultants on the project: providing advice on methods, data sources and reviewing documentation.

More information:

alison.ritter@unsw.edu.au

Queensland Police and Queensland Health

Project title: Building a Queensland Cannabis Diversion Model

DPMP Researchers: Caitlin Hughes and Michael Lodge

Queensland Health: Stephen Anstis and Carol Read

Queensland Police: Murray Ryan and Gabrielle Webb

Overview:

Queensland has adopted a comprehensive system of police and court diversion for cannabis users. This includes the police diversion program for minor cannabis offenders, illicit drugs court diversion program for other minor illicit drug offenders and Queensland Magistrate Early Referral into Treatment program. There are a number of questions that now arise about the future directions of the Queensland diversion system. In conjunction with Queensland Health and Police DPMP will build a Cannabis Diversion Model for the Queensland context. The model will incorporate the costs and outcomes of the current system and the likely costs and outcomes if Queensland were to modify its existing system.

More information:

caitlin.hughes@unsw.edu.au

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