Monica J Barratt
Biographic Data
| ID | 231190 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Monica J Barratt |
| GIVEN NAMES | Monica J |
| FAMILY NAME | Barratt |
| SIGNATURE | BARRATT M J |
| AFFILIATIONS | UNSW Sydney |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1015-9379 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 80 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 75 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 80 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Modifiable Determinants of Psychological Harms among Male Image and Performance Enhancing Drug Consumers
BACKGROUND: Image and performance-enhancing drugs (IPEDs) are linked to undesirable psychological effects (e.g., depression), influenced by various factors. This study examined associations between non-modifiable (e.g. age) and modifiable (e.g. prescription status, dosage regimen, polypharmacy load) factors and psychological effects among male IPED consumers. METHODS: Data from 785 males (median age = 30) reporting past-year IPED consumption in t…
“You can only take your clients as far as you’ve been yourself”: Examining the intersections between psychedelic-assisted therapy, lived-living experience, and clinical practice
Background Following Australia’s landmark 2023 decision to approve psilocybin and MDMA for clinical use, psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) is beginning to emerge within regulated mental health settings. This study investigates psychologists’ views on the relevance of psychedelic therapists’ lived-living experience (LLE) with psychedelics. While discussion around LLE is growing, little is known about how psychologists perceive its role in clinica…
The Emergence of Novel Benzodiazepines in Australia, Evidence, Alerts, Clinical Management and Harm Reduction—A Narrative Review
Price of Nitazenes for Sale on Cryptomarkets and Surface Web Shops
Distinct Drinking Patterns, Help Seeking, and Alcohol-Related Regret in ADHD, Autism, and AuDHD
ADHD is associated with higher alcohol use, while autism is linked to lower use, but little is known about patterns among individuals with both conditions (AuDHD), particularly when accounting for mental health. This study examined whether alcohol consumption, drunkenness, regret, and help-seeking differ across ADHD, autism, AuDHD, and controls, and whether regret predicts intentions to reduce drinking. Using data from the 2021 Global Drug Survey…
Incorporating experiential reports provided by people who use drugs into drug-related early warning systems: Benefits, risks principles and approaches
Psychedelics and Sexual Trauma: Effects on Communication and Emotional Connection
Psychedelics are theorized to enhance emotional openness and interpersonal attunement, but their effects in sexual contexts - particularly among those with a history of sexual trauma - remain underexplored. This study investigated whether individuals who had used psychedelics to cope with or overcome sexual trauma (Psy-CST) reported different experiences of sexual communication and emotional connection compared to those who had not (No-Psy-CST). …
Why, Where, and with Whom? Understanding the set and setting influencing the consumption of NoLo beverages
Background: Production and use of no- and low-alcohol (NoLo) beverages has increased globally in recent years. Using data from a large international sample of people who drink alcohol, this study aimed to investigate patterns of NoLo drink consumption. Methods: The study utilized data from the 2022 Global Drug Survey (GDS). We used cross-tabulation and multiple correspondence analysis to understand usage patterns and identify key groupings. Resul…
Creating Safer Injecting Practices Through Community‐Led Harm Reduction: Lessons From People Who Use Steroids for the Alcohol and Other Drug Sector
Development, dissemination and community response towards the first community notice regarding misrepresented illicit anabolic‐androgenic steroids in circulation in Australia
Barriers to the use of no and low alcohol products in high‐risk drinkers
Risk communication about high‐dose MDMA: Impact of a hypothetical drug alert on future MDMA use
Cannabis trading on Telegram channels: Implications for the normalization of use and supply
Various forms of cannabis normalization processes are visible in Telegram-facilitated cannabis trade. This may have public health implications as it may be related to increasing cannabis use across diverse populations. However, normalization through Telegram may simultaneously provide users with detailed product information, promote informed decision-making, and encourage indigenous harm-reduction strategies. This paradoxical impact underscores t…
From environmental disasters to emerging drugs; a framework to understand, map and assess drug-related early warning systems
Unregulated drug markets are fast expanding and increasingly mediated through digital technologies. In a context of drug prohibition, the composition, potency and effects of substances are not guaranteed which can expose people to potentially fatal risks. There are pronounced concerns about the harms posed by substances such as synthetic opioids like fentanyl and nitazenes. The coordinated activities of stakeholders who attempt to identify, prepa…
Global patterns in small-scale cannabis growers’ distribution practices: Exploring the grower-distributor nexus
We discuss the implications of the findings on the structural process of import-substitution in low-end cannabis markets, including a growing normalization of cannabis supply
Conflict and social control among cannabis growers
Impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on cannabis cultivation and use in 18 countries
This study is the first to document an increase in cannabis cultivation activity following COVID restrictions. Increased home cultivation was not only driven by higher use as a result of home isolation, but also by disruptions of wider illegal cannabis supply. Limitations of this study include the non-representativeness of the sample as well as differences in approaches and duration of restrictions in different countries
Growing practices and the use of potentially harmful chemical additives from a web survey of mainly small-scale cannabis growers in 18 countries
Are cannabis use problems comparable across individuals using for recreational and medical purposes? An international cross-sectional study of individuals who use self-grown cannabis
Tracing the Impact of Media, Cultural Narratives, and Social Perceptions on Australia's Anabolic-Androgenic Steroid Communities
Anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) are used for performance and image enhancement, yet their non-medical use in Australia is heavily criminalized and framed by sociocultural narratives that emphasize risk, deviance and harm. This study aimed to critically examine how people who use AAS experience these narratives, focusing on challenging their role in perpetuating stigma and reinforcing punitive responses. The study employed a peer-led approach t…
Adulteration and substitution of drugs purchased in Australia from cryptomarkets: An analysis of Test4Pay
“The compounds for females are really commonly faked!”: Women's challenges in anabolic steroid acquisition and the place of drug checking interventions
The relationship between cryptomarket drug purchase, social networks and adverse drug events: A cross-sectional study
People who reported purchasing drugs from cryptomarkets more commonly reported having no drug-using network, and cryptomarket purchase was associated with reported adverse events. Our results support the notion that cryptomarket use increases drug-related harm, but further disentanglement of multiple complex mechanisms is needed in future research
Sweating for Sobriety: Exploring the Relationship Between Exercise Engagement and Substance Use Disorders
Despite various interventions available for substance use disorders, relapse rates remain substantial and, therefore, alternative strategies for attenuating dependence are needed. This study examined the associations between exercise frequency, illicit substance use, and dependence severity among a large sample of people who use drugs. The study utilized data from the Global Drug Survey 2018 ( N = 57,110) to investigate the relationship between e…
Responsibility, Care and Trust Among People Using Drug Checking Services at a Music Festival
Drug checking services (DCS) allow people who use drugs to submit substances of concern for chemical analysis and then provide results and specialized counselling when needed. DCS intersect risk management, from a public health perspective, with an activist take that provides people who use drugs with agency over their use by helping them detect and avoid unwanted substances. This paper presents data from an exploratory study of people's motivati…
Hidden Populations, Online Purposive Sampling, and External Validity: Taking off the Blindfold
Online purposive samples have unknown biases and may not strictly be used to make inferences about wider populations, yet such inferences continue to occur. We compared the demographic and drug use characteristics of Australian ecstasy users from a probability (National Drug Strategy Household Survey, n = 726) and purposive sample (online survey conducted as part of a mixed-methods study of online drug discussion, n = 753) using nonparametric (bo…
Active engagement with stigmatised communities through digital ethnography
Conducting research in the rapidly evolving fields constituting the digital social sciences raises challenging ethical and technical issues, especially when the subject matter includes activities of stigmatised populations. Our study of a dark-web drug-use community provides a case example of 'how to' conduct studies in digital environments where sensitive and illicit activities are discussed. In this paper we present the workflow from our digita…
Coming Out”: Stigma, Reflexivity and the Drug Researcher’s Drug Use
Some personal experience of illicit drug use undoubtedly exists within the population of academic drug researchers. But it is rarely acknowledged, and even more rarely reflected upon, in their published work. This is understandable: criminal, professional and social sanctions may follow public admission of illicit activities. However, to not “come out” seems contrary to some core academic principles, such as transparency in data collection and re…
Selling Drugs on Darkweb Cryptomarkets: Differentiated Pathways, Risks and Rewards
Cryptomarkets, anonymous online markets where illicit drugs are exchanged, have operated since 2011, yet there is a dearth of knowledge on why people use these platforms to sell drugs, with only one previous study involving interviews with this novel group. Based on 13 interviews with this hard to reach population, and data analysis critically framed from perspectives of economic calculation, the seductions of crime, and drift and techniques of n…
The challenges and benefits of analyzing feedback comments in surveys: Lessons from a cross-national online survey of small-scale cannabis growers
It is common practice in survey questionnaires to include a general open and non-directive feedback question at the end, but the analysis of this type of data is rarely discussed in the methodological literature. While these open-ended comments can be useful, most researchers fail to report on this issue. The aim of this article is to illustrate and reflect upon the benefits and challenges of analyzing responses to open-ended feedback questions. …
Better Bang for the Buck? Generalizing Trust in Online Drug Markets
Past research into illicit online markets suggests that trust is produced by governance, reputation systems and the formation of social ties. In this paper, we draw on accounts of abstract and institutional trust, examining whether using a market is associated with general positive beliefs about product quality. Using data from the 2018 Global Drug Survey (n = 25,471) we utilize propensity score matching and multilevel linear regression to examin…
Social Supply and the Potential for Harm Reduction in Social Media Drug Markets
Background Existing studies have highlighted the potential for increased drug market risks from buying drugs via social media involving strangers, such as receiving adulterated drugs or being robbed. However, social supply-driven social media drug markets may also offer enhanced social dealing and harm reduction opportunities. Aim To explore how social media platform features that enable expanded social networking may also support safer social dr…
Mescaline, Peyote and San Pedro: Is sustainability important for cacti consumers
Background and AimsBoth Peyote and San Pedro cacti contain mescaline, a classical psychedelic eliciting mystical and visual effects, but only Peyote is a vulnerable species. We sought to address the questions 1; do people who use Peyote substitute with San Pedro, and vice versa, and; 2. how popular is the use of wild harvested mescaline cactus compared with the use of cultivated plants?MethodsData were collected as part of the 2022 Global Drug Su…
The Use of Discord Servers to Buy and Sell Drugs
The focus of current research on social media drug markets is the use of mainstream platforms such as Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram. No research currently exists examining how lesser-known social media platforms may facilitate online drug supply. This paper presents the first analysis of the use of the social media platform Discord to buy and sell illegal drugs. The study utilizes observational data and qualitative interviews with Discord drug…
Social capital and cannabis supply
The distribution of cannabis in Australia is examined with reference to motivations for supplying drugs. We argue that the distribution of cannabis in Australia is best understood with reference to the concept of social supply, where a supplier, not considered to be a 'drug dealer proper', brokers, facilitates or sells drugs, for little or no financial gain to friends and acquaintances. The article draws on data from surveys and interviews with 2…
A survey of regular ecstasy users’ knowledge and practices around determining pill content and purity: Implications for policy and practice
Positive and negative aspects of participation in illicit drug research: Implications for recruitment and ethical conduct
Silk Road: Ebay for Drugs: The journal publishes both invited and unsolicited letters.
Internet and digital technologies have been discussed recently by Addiction contributors in relation to the delivery of efficient computer-delivered brief interventions [1,2], online methodologies for recruiting and surveying illicit drug users [3] and the internet's role in facilitating the spread of information and sale of emerging drugs such as mephedrone [4] and synthetic cannabinoids [5]. Here, I introduce readers to a novel use of the inter…
Kronic hysteria: Exploring the intersection between Australian synthetic cannabis legislation, the media, and drug-related harm
Use of Silk Road, the online drug marketplace, in the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States: Silk Road global survey
AIMS: To investigate the prevalence of awareness of the online illicit drug marketplace Silk Road (SR), consumption of drugs purchased from SR and reasons for use and non-use of SR. DESIGN AND SETTING: Global Drug Survey: purposive sample collected in late 2012. PARTICIPANTS: The base sample (n = 9470) reported recent drug purchase and resided in the United Kingdom (n = 4315, median age 24, 76% male), Australia (n = 2761, median age 32, 76% male)…
Growing medicine: Small-scale cannabis cultivation for medical purposes in six different countries
There is a wider demand for licit access for medical cannabis than currently available in these countries. Ideologically, medical growers can be seen distancing themselves from both the legal and illicit drug markets. From a harm reduction perspective, it is worrying that, in the context of present health and control policies in these countries, many medical growers are using cannabis to treat serious medical conditions without proper medical adv…
Attitudes of cannabis growers to regulation of cannabis cultivation under a non-prohibition cannabis model
Representativeness of online purposive sampling with Australian cannabis cultivators
Lessons from conducting trans-national Internet-mediated participatory research with hidden populations of cannabis cultivators
Global patterns of domestic cannabis cultivation: Sample characteristics and patterns of growing across eleven countries
Hidden Populations, Online Purposive Sampling, and External Validity: Taking off the Blindfold
Online purposive samples have unknown biases and may not strictly be used to make inferences about wider populations, yet such inferences continue to occur. We compared the demographic and drug use characteristics of Australian ecstasy users from a probability (National Drug Strategy Household Survey, n = 726) and purposive sample (online survey conducted as part of a mixed-methods study of online drug discussion, n = 753) using nonparametric (bo…
Constructive activism in the dark web: Cryptomarkets and illicit drugs in the digital ‘demimonde’
This paper explores activism enacted through Silk Road, a now defunct cryptomarket where illicit drugs were sold in the dark web. Drawing on a digital ethnography of Silk Road, we develop the notion of constructive activism to extend the lexicon of concepts available to discuss forms of online activism. Monitoring of the cryptomarket took place between June 2011 and its closure in October 2013. Just before and after the closure of the marketplace…
Safer scoring? Cryptomarkets, social supply and drug market violence
Results of an international drug testing service for cryptomarket users
Everything you always wanted to know about drug cryptomarkets* (*but were afraid to ask)
What if you live on top of a bakery and you like cakes?’—Drug use and harm trajectories before, during and after the emergence of Silk Road
Active engagement with stigmatised communities through digital ethnography
Conducting research in the rapidly evolving fields constituting the digital social sciences raises challenging ethical and technical issues, especially when the subject matter includes activities of stigmatised populations. Our study of a dark-web drug-use community provides a case example of 'how to' conduct studies in digital environments where sensitive and illicit activities are discussed. In this paper we present the workflow from our digita…
The utility of drug checking services as monitoring tools and more: A response to Pirona et al
Motivations for new psychoactive substance use among regular psychostimulant users in Australia
Increases in synthetic cannabinoids-related harms: Results from a longitudinal web-based content analysis
A critical examination of the definition of ‘psychoactive effect’ in Australian drug legislation
Social capital and cannabis supply
The distribution of cannabis in Australia is examined with reference to motivations for supplying drugs. We argue that the distribution of cannabis in Australia is best understood with reference to the concept of social supply, where a supplier, not considered to be a 'drug dealer proper', brokers, facilitates or sells drugs, for little or no financial gain to friends and acquaintances. The article draws on data from surveys and interviews with 2…
Drug detection dogs at Australian outdoor music festivals: Deterrent, detection and iatrogenic effects
The impact of drug policy liberalisation on willingness to seek help for problem drug use: A comparison of 20 countries
Drug-related police encounters across the globe: How do they compare
Medicine (50 works) · Psychology (45 works) · Psychiatry (43 works) · HIV, Drug Use, Sexual Risk (35 works) · Business (30 works) · Drug (30 works) · Political science (25 works) · Computer Science (22 works) · Cannabis (21 works) · Sociology (20 works)