Strategic Focus:

To analyse public health policy and ethical issues raised by genetic and neuroscience research, and thier applications to the treatment and prevention of drug use and addiction.

Current research projects include:

Assessing the global prevalence of illicit drug use and the contribution of harms  related to their use to the global burden of disease;

The ethical and social implications of drug-induced compulsive behaviour in patients with Parkinsons’ Disease treated with dopamine agonists;

The feasibility and ethical acceptability of vaccinating adolescents against the effects of nicotine to prevent cigarette smoking 

The ethical implications of proposals to treat addiction using deep brain stimulation (DBS);

The ethical and social implications of using drugs to enhance human cognitive performance (“neuroenhancement").

Key Collaborators

• Rob Hester
• Mark Daglish
• Benedikt Fischer
• Robin Room
• Ben Capps
• Judy Illes
• Lousia Degenhardt
• Craig Fry
• Eric Racine
• Peter Miller
• John Strang