In this episode, Dr Elle Wadsworth talks to Dr Emmert Roberts, Senior Clinical Lecturer at the National Addiction Centre, King’s College London and a Consultant Addiction Psychiatrist at the South London and the Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. The interview covers Emmert’s short report examining the characteristics of drug-related deaths among individuals identified as LGBTQ+ in the United Kingdom, 1997–2024.

LGBTQ+ stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer and others.

• The importance of examining drug-related deaths among those in the LGBTQ+ community [01:31]
• The use of the National Program on Substance Use Mortality database [04:00]
• The main findings of the study [05:05]
• The types of drugs used in sexualised and non-sexualised drug use [08:31]
• The limitations of the reporting of sexual orientation or trans status in coroner data [10:18]
• Improving the reporting of sexual orientation and trans status in coroner data [13:02]
• The implications of the findings for policy and practice [16:04]
• A sneak preview of findings from Emmert’s other paper in Addiction on methamphetamine-related deaths [17:07]
• The findings that were surprising to Emmert [18:59]

About Elle Wadsworth: Elle is an academic fellow with the Society for the Study of Addiction. She is based at the University of Bath with the Addiction and Mental Health Group and her research interests include drug policy, cannabis legalisation, and public health.

About Emmert Roberts: Emmert is a Senior Clinical Lecturer at the National Addiction Centre, King’s College London and a Consultant Addiction Psychiatrist at the South London and the Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. He is a National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) Advanced Fellow, a Senior Harkness Fellow at the Commonwealth Fund and the Clinical Lead of the National Program on Substance Use Mortality (NPSUM).

Authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Original article: Characteristics of drug-related deaths among individuals identified as LGBTQ+ in the United Kingdom, 1997–2024 https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70198

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

The SSA does not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of the information in external sources or links and accepts no responsibility or liability for any consequences arising from the use of such information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Dr Elle Wadsworth talks to Dr Myfanwy Graham, a Postgraduate Scholar at Monash University funded by the Australian Government's National Health and Medical Research Council. The interview covers Myfanwy’s data insight paper examining differences in the measurement of medical cannabis use.

• Why definitions and contexts matter with regards to medical cannabis use [01:05]
• Four measures of medical cannabis use that Myfanwy explored in the study [02:05]
• The medical cannabis policy contexts of the US, Australia, and Canada [03:30]
• The importance of using standardised questions across different countries [05:18]
• The main findings of the data insight [05:48]
• Interpretations of medical cannabis use [07:49]
• The implications of the findings for policy and practice [08:23]
• Myfanwy’s preferred measure of medical cannabis use [09:30]
• Self perceptions of being a medical cannabis consumer [10:34]
• The take-home messages of the study [11:56]

About Elle Wadsworth: Elle is an academic fellow with the Society for the Study of Addiction. She is based at the University of Bath with the Addiction and Mental Health Group and her research interests include drug policy, cannabis legalisation, and public health.

About Myfanwy Graham: Myfanwy is a Postgraduate Scholar funded by the Australian Government's National Health and Medical Research Council and a Monash Research Excellence Scholar at the Monash Addiction Research Centre, Monash University. Her research examines the intersection between drug policy and health outcomes with psychoactive medicines (e.g. medical cannabis, psychedelics). She is also a current Fellow at the Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics at the University of Southern California and is a Fulbright Scholar Alumna in public health policy. Myfanwy has completed consultancy work for the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, World Health Organization, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. She is also a registered pharmacist.

Authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Original article: Understanding medical cannabis use internationally: Why definitions and context matter https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70117

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

The SSA does not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of the information in external sources or links and accepts no responsibility or liability for any consequences arising from the use of such information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Dr Elle Wadsworth talks to Dr Tim Mackey and Dr Doug Roehler. Tim is a professor in the Global Health Program at UC San Diego and the CEO and co-founder of S-3 Research, and Doug is the Cannabis Research Unit lead in the Department of Policy and Research for California’s Department of Cannabis Control. The interview covers Tim and Doug’s research article exploring the health benefit claims of cannabis products on online marketplaces in the United States.

• Why exploring health benefit claims on cannabis products was an important topic to investigate [01:20]
• What are cannabis-derived products? [03:07]
• What are the online marketplaces ‘Leafly’ and ‘Weedmaps’? [03:35]
• Examples of health benefit claims [05:00]
• The main findings of the study [07:33]
• The cannabis regulatory environment in the US [10:20]
• The differences in health claims between different types of cannabis products [12:20]
• The methodology used in the study that brought together data scientists and public health researchers [14:11]
• The health claims that surprised Tim and Doug [18:31]

About Elle Wadsworth: Elle is an academic fellow with the Society for the Study of Addiction. She is based at the University of Bath with the Addiction and Mental Health Group and her research interests include drug policy, cannabis legalisation, and public health. She has a BSc in Chemistry, an MSc in Addiction Studies, and a PhD in Public Health.

About Tim Ken Mackey: Tim is a Professor in the Global Health Program at UC San Diego and the CEO and co-founder of S-3 Research, a public health data science company originally created from a Challenge.gov award. He is also the Director of the Global Health Policy and Data Institute and the Editor-in-Chief of JMIR Infodemiology. He has co-authored over 270 manuscripts on topics including global health, technology, data science, substance use disorder, and health policy. Dr Mackey is an entrepreneur and scientist working on technology innovation to address public health challenges.

About Douglas Roehler: Doug leads the Cannabis Research Unit in the Department of Policy and Research for California’s Department of Cannabis Control. Previously, he was a health scientist and epidemiologist in the Division of Overdose Prevention at the CDC, where he primarily served in the CDC’s Cannabis Strategy Unit. He has published extensively on cannabis topics in peer-reviewed journals and governmental reports, appeared on national podcasts, and represented the CDC in the national media. He has published widely on several other topics, including injury prevention, drug overdose and substance use, youth prevention, syndromic surveillance, traffic crashes, and youth violence.

Declarations of Interest: Tim Mackey is the CEO and co-founder of the company S-3 Research and holds equity/ownership in the company. S-3 Research is a small business that has received funding through government contracts and grants for professional and technology services including on topics related to substance use disorder.

Original article: Exploratory analysis of United States-based cannabis product health benefit claims on online marketplaces https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70177

The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.

The SSA does not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of the information in external sources or links and accepts no responsibility or liability for any consequences arising from the use of such information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.