SSDP's Research & Advocacy Opportunities

What is SSDP’s National Research Team all about?

Our team empowers young peers, students and early career researchers to conduct primary and secondary research in order to ensure that SSDP’s work is evidence-based, and informed by the perspectives of our community and expert allies. We encourage all people who have an interest in research, drug use and drug policy to join, regardless of their skill level or availability. We have a wide range of projects, and most can be contributed to online.

Why join the research team? 

• Community: Have fun connecting with other young people and students who are interested in drug policy and drug use. 

• Career: We can help you level up in your studies, open up opportunities for a career in this field and connect you with our international network of allies and academics. 

• Change: Help change and co-design policies and programs to suit the needs of young people and students. 

What’s the research team up to at the moment? What advocacy are we engaged in? What opportunities and projects could you get involved in?  

• Advocating for pill testing ‘drug checking’, ‘drug testing’) services that meet young people’s needs through our #BeHeardNotHarmed campaign

  • Publishing a youth-led critique of the Victorian Department of Health’s response to the Victorian Coroner’s recommendation for the introduction of pill testing services.

  • Continuing to promote our letter campaign that is pressuring Martin Foley (Minister for Health) to support the Coroner’s recommendations. https://www.beheardnotharmed.com/victorian-letter-campaign 

  • We are also looking at how harm reduction services can best reach, serve and be run by drug-using communities, and young people. This includes a focus on pill testing & early warning system service design. 

• Advocating for cannabis legalisation models that meet young people’s needs. 

  • Responding to the upcoming report/recommendations from the Inquiry into the Use of Cannabis in Victoria. 

  • Publishing a youth-led critique of Victoria Police’s submission to the Inquiry into the Use of Cannabis in Victoria. Read their submission here: https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/images/stories/committees/SCLSI/Inquiry_into_the_use_of_Cannabis_in_Victoria/Submissions/S901_-_Victoria_Police.pdf 

  • Continuing to promote our submission to the inquiry. You can read it (and our other various submissions and statements) here: https://www.ssdp.org.au/advocacy 

  • Promoting our ‘hearing’ presentation to the inquiry’s committee. You read the official transript here https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/images/stories/committees/SCLSI/Inquiry_into_the_use_of_Cannabis_in_Victoria/Transcripts/20210421/Presentations/SSDPA_Presentation.pdf . We’ll also soon be publishing a video recording of the hearing, so subscribe to our FB page https://www.facebook.com/SSDPAustralia/ and sign up for our emails .  

  • Continuing to survey our community about how they want cannabis legalised, and how they might help a campaign. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SSDP-cannabis-survey 

  • Preparing a petition or letter campaign targeting the Victorian Government. 

  • Our Western Australian team is also running this event about medical cannabis https://www.facebook.com/events/325000188999335/

• Conducting a youth-led critique of Australia’s National Drug Strategy (NDS)

  • Conducting a literature review, interviewing experts, and publishing a report in an academic journal, in a Special Series on “Young people, drugs and harm reduction”, with our allies at YouthRISE https://youthrise.org/launch-of-special-series-on-young-people-drugs-and-harm-reduction/ 

  • Creating an education campaign for our community to explain the history of the War on Drugs in Australia (especially how it has harmed young people), and our vision for how our generation can holistically change the way society manages drugs.  

  • Watch our 2020 ‘Uncovering the Australian War on Drugs' webinar (A video link will be shared soon via our FB page https://www.facebook.com/SSDPAustralia/ )

• Contributing to miscellaneous research projects (and annotated bibliographies)

  • There’s always heaps happening in drug policy at the international, national, state, and local levels. SSDP is connected to so much of the space, and is always finding new big and small projects we could use help with.

  • SSPD also welcomes project suggestions, or you helping us to get more across any drug policy topic you’re personally passionate about. 

  • Some common topics include: racial justice, increasing access to psychedelics, treatment reform, decriminalisation, and legalisation. Check out some of our past work here: https://www.ssdp.org.au/advocacy 

• Attend our upcoming free online research & advocacy workshop/training event for newcomers and existing members. 

  • The topic is "What is the role of youth-led research, policy analysis and program design in achieving drug policy reform?", 

  • The ~1hr session will be led by Sebastian Antoine (Policy and Research Officer from Youth Affairs Council Victoria [YACVic]) and Dr Monica Barratt (Drug policy and drug use researcher from RMIT and UNSW), and SSDP’s Research Team leaders. 

  • This will be run in early September. Event Link TBD… for now, email gulliver@ssdp.org.au to express your interest).  

• Attend one of our regular national online social meetings 

  • We generally run these monthly, the next one is Thursday 12th of August. 

  • There’s no pressure to commit. Think of it as a drop in study group, where we talk about random stuff that interests you, and can help introduce you to what SSDP (and our team) is all about. 

  • Event blurb: “SSDP’s Research Team is hosting an online gathering! If you've been wanting to meet more students & young people interested in research related to drug policy and drug use, then come along! The space is for current and aspiring researchers to talk about what’s going on for them in these unprecedented times, and we’ll also be discussing what SSDP and the research team are up to, and what opportunities there might be for you”

  • RSVP via Facebook https://www.facebook.com/events/591627758490278 or this zoom link: ​​https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYlc-Gsqz0pE9RNwSVxP2Rx3x2JAgZi1hIZ?fbclid=IwAR3JXIw3jJQsxJjB9GiM-E3smZyAttbR-DtUCviySOTJ5dikqlGIdf4pcRw 

• Attend regular online research team meetings

  • These are more focussed on our projects, but there’s still a social focus. 

  • These generally run weekly for ~1hr on Tuesday nights (sometimes fortnightly). 

  • To get an invite, sign up via https://www.ssdp.org.au/get-involved and/or contact gulliver@ssdp.org.au (Research Team Leader).

Last updated: 5/8/2021