Prescription and illicit drug misuse

Overview

Misuse and abuse of psychoactive substances creates many challenges for society as a whole as well as at the community level in terms of criminality and anti-social behaviour, as well as health and lifestyle problems.

Users of drugs (prescribed, ‘over the counter’, illicit or ‘legal highs’), alcohol, volatile substances and tobacco often encounter significant health problems, as well as suffering excess morbidity and mortality.

The University has consequently set up a group to look at the issues involved.

What the group does

This multi-disciplinary group investigates the links between substance misuse and other related phenomena, at the local, national and international levels.

The factors involved range from the availability of products and prevalence of use to treatment, prevention, education and provision of information, through to control and regulation.

Over the last year, specific contributions have been made by the Centre researchers to several areas in addiction psychiatry and general psychiatry. The team liaise with a number of networks to document, research and disseminate scientific information and provide informed advice on these issues on a ‘real-time’ basis, using state-of-art techniques and resources.

This dissemination takes the form of peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, virtual seminars, conference presentations, working with policy-makers, and influential advisory bodies.

Key projects

The drug misuse group has a number of areas of interest which members monitor on a regular basis, including:

Prof Fabrizio Schifano, Mr John Corkery, Dr Ornella Corazza - Stimulant synthetic drugs (ie cocaine/crack cocaine; amphetamine-type stimulants; ecstasy and ecstasy-like compounds; natural and synthetic cathinones (khat, mephedrone); methoxetamine; MDAI; caffeine/energy drinks). ·    

Prof Fabrizio Schifano, Mr John Corkery - Mortality studies: in collaboration with the International Centre for Drug Policy, St George’s University of London, lead the Department of Health-funded National Programme on Substance Abuse Deaths (np-SAD) and volatile substances abuse mortality register. ·    

Prof Fabrizio Schifano, Dr Ornella Corazza, Mr John Corkery - Internet and drugs: a new area of research. Prof Schifano is the Principal Investigator of the third consecutive EU-Commission-funded, multi-centre (ie 12 EU countries), 2010-2012 Psychonaut/ReDNet research programmes. ·    

Dr Jacque Stair, Dr Suzanne Fergus - chemical characterisation of ‘legal highs’: Identification and investigation of these and other psychoactive substances available on the Internet, through developing new analytical techniques.  

Key grant awards

Recent awards include:

Schifano, F, Corazza, O. European Commission, total amount: €833,333 ‘Recreational Drugs’ European Network: an ICT prevention service addressing the use of novel compounds in vulnerable individuals. ReDNet’ Principal Investigator and Grant Holder (2010-2012).    

Corkery, J. Analyse the data sources, numbers and characteristics of cocaine-related DRD cases reported in special mortality registries. European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, Lisbon - €4000 (2011-2012).    

Corkery J, Corazza O, Schifano F. University of Hertfordshire, QR small competitive grant funding: ‘Monitoring the ever changing world of novel psychoactive substances through the analysis of related information made available online and from coroners’ reports’. £4,993 (2012-2013).    

Stair J, Fergus S. University of Hertfordshire, QR small competitive grant funding: ‘Developing portable, on-demand identification of novel drugs of abuse using spectroscopic techniques and chemometrics’. £5,000 (2012-2013).   

Fergus S. University of Hertfordshire, QR small competitive grant funding: ‘Synthesis of chemical components related to Mephedrone contained in ‘legal highs’ available from Internet sources. £10,000 (2011-2012).