Emerging drugs of abuse in Victoria: a clinical and forensic study to inform public health

The dynamic nature of the global illicit drug market presents multiple ongoing challenges, including the introduction of new psychoactive substances. This has necessitated the establishment of illicit drug early warning systems to enable the rapid identification emergent drug trends. This thesis explored the current context of community illicit drug monitoring in Australia and introduced a novel method for monitoring illicit drug-related harms by studying clinical and toxicological data for a subset of acutely intoxicated patients presenting to public emergency departments. This work has been able to identify emergent drug trends, assess the clinical effects of new psychoactive substances and has contributed to public health harm reduction efforts in Victoria.