Concurrent Session 1A: Drug Checking and Surveillance: Evidence-led harm reduction
Tracks
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| Monday, November 9, 2026 |
| 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM |
Speaker
Dr Courtney Weber
Data Manager For The Emerging Drugs Network Of Australia
Royal Perth Hospital
Illicit and novel drug detections in Australian emergency departments: findings from the first two years of the Emerging Drugs Network of Australia
1:35 PM - 1:45 PMBiography
Courtney Weber is the Data Manager for the Emerging Drugs Network of Australia. Her interests are novel psychoactive substances and epidemiological methods.
Prof. Malcolm McLeod
Professor of Chemistry
ANU
Benzodiazepines in the ACT Illicit Drug Supply: Surveillance Data from the CanTEST Health and Drug Checking Service
1:45 PM - 1:55 PMBiography
Professor Mal McLeod is a chemist with research interests the analysis of drugs and drug metabolism. He has pioneered the development of drug checking as a harm reduction intervention in festival and city settings as scientific advisor to Pill Testing Australia and the CanTEST Health and Drug Checking Service.
Dr. Bruce Wallace
Professor
Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research (CISUR)
How drug checking is implemented matters – knowledge exchange from an established project
1:55 PM - 2:05 PMBiography
Bruce Wallace is a Professor at University of Victoria’s School of Social Work and a Scientist with the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research (CISUR). His research focuses on substance use and harm reduction and is the Co-Lead of the Substance Drug Checking Project (https://substance.uvic.ca).
Dr Mostafa Mardani
Senior Research Assistant
University of Queensland
Peer support and drug checking for people who use Anabolic Androgenic Steroids: a mixed-methods evaluation of SteroidQNECT and ROIDCheck
2:05 PM - 2:15 PMBiography
Mostafa Mardani is a drug and alcohol counsellor and researcher with a PhD in Social Work, specialising in addiction, harm reduction. Based at the UQ's NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence on Achieving the Tobacco Endgame, his work bridges research with community engagement to drive policy and practice change.
Dr Timothy Piatkowski
Senior Research Fellow
The University of Queensland
ROIDCheck: Reducing illicit steROID harms through the first ever enhancement drug CHECKing service
2:15 PM - 2:25 PMBiography
Dr Timothy Piatkowski is a globally recognised leader in lived-living experience–led research on substance use, with a particular focus on enhancement drugs. He is a Senior Research Fellow at The University of Queensland’s Centre for Health Services Research, supported by an NHMRC Investigator Grant supporting his expansion of ROIDCheck.
Dr Rhys Ponton
Senior Lecturer
School of Pharmacy, University of Auckland
Exploration of Pharmacist Opinions and Knowledge of Recreational Drug Checking
2:25 PM - 2:35 PMBiography
Dr Rhys Ponton is based at the University of Auckland School of Pharmacy, where he leads a harm reduction-focused research programme grounded in pharmacy practice. His work promotes safer drug consumption practices and he uses drug checking legislation to enable research, inform policy, and improve public health outcomes.
Associate Professor Amy Peacock
Associate Professor
National Drug And Alcohol Research Centre, Unsw
Janette Smith
Senior Biostatistician
NSW Ministry Of Health
Same Press, Different Contents: Using Police Seizure and Drug Checking Data to Inform Peer Health Messaging on MDMA Tablets
2:40 PM - 2:45 PMBiography
Clancy Beckers (they/them) works at NUAA, NSW's peer drug user organisation. Their work spans festival-based harm reduction such as drug checking, science communication, peer training, and NSP operations. Janette Smith (she/her) covers NSW drug surveillance statistics for the Centre for Alcohol and Other Drugs at the NSW Ministry of Health.
Dr Vendula Belackova
Research Coordinator
Kirketon Road Centre
An expanding population with unmet needs: a survey of people who use peptides, anabolic steroids, or other performance and image enhancing drugs in the context of needle and syringe programs
2:45 PM - 2:50 PMBiography
Vendula has been a Research Coordinator at Kirketon Road Centre since 2024. In this in-service research role focusing on primary health, sexual health and blood-borne viruses, she has been able to apply her previous experience working as a researcher in drug policy and in alcohol and other drug services.
