Drawing on fresh lessons from overseas, Penington Institute presents this important webinar featuring an expert panel discussing strategies and responses to help prevent nitazene-related harms in Australia.
There is global concern about the rising rates of harm due to nitazenes – a class of potent synthetic opioids that can be 50-500 times stronger than heroin that are appearing as adulterants and contaminants in unregulated drug supplies.
Nitazenes are intensifying both intentional and unintentional drug overdose in Australia and around the globe, and present a new challenge in drug policy, clinical practice and public health.
Join us at this event with our expert guest panel;
- Tony Duffin, CEO at Ana Liffey Drug Project, Ireland
- Chris Rintoul, Innovation and Harm Reduction Lead at Cranstoun, UK
- Associate Professor Katherine Isoardi, Emergency Physician and Clinical Toxicologist, Princess Alexandra Hospital (Qld) | Medical Director Qld Poisons Info Centre, Australia
Do you know enough about nitazenes? Is our local workforce ready to respond with evidence-based approaches and adequate information? Join the webinar to learn more.
Nitazenes: An expert panel discussion
Wednesday 21 August 2024
4pm – 5:30pm AEST
Webinar held via Zoom, free admission
With International Overdose Awareness Day coming up on 31 August, this webinar will overview the characteristics of emerging nitazene products as well as preventative responses when addressing this new frontier of synthetic opioid harms in the Australian context.
This webinar is appropriate for frontline workers across harm reduction, drug treatment, health and community services, law enforcement, and people with an interest in drug policy and public health.
Meet our expert panel
Tony Duffin
CEO, Ana Liffey Drug Project, Ireland
Tony is the CEO of Ana Liffey Drug Project, an organisation that reaches people who are often taking multiple drugs, sleeping rough and experiencing mental and physical health difficulties in Ireland.
Tony is also the Chair of Ireland’s Strategic Implementation Group 5 – a subcommittee within the National Drugs Strategy structure, and has played a key role in opening Ireland’s first emergency accommodation for young people who inject drugs; the provision of Ireland’s first wet residential service for entrenched street drinkers; successfully advocating for legislative change to allow for the existence of Supervised Injecting Facilities; and championing the decriminalisation of people who use drugs.
Tony will share his policy expertise and insights following unusual clusters of nitazene poisonings linked with adulterated heroin and counterfeit benzodiazepines in Ireland in late 2023 and early 2024.
Chris Rintoul
Innovation and Harm Reduction Lead, Cranstoun, United Kingdom
Chris is Head of Harm Reduction at Cranstoun, a harm reduction and social justice charity providing support services across England.
Prior to his time at Cranstoun, Chris worked as a Social Worker for 25 years in Belfast, and in drug treatment and homelessness services. He has a specialist interest and expertise in harm reduction, and overdose response, in particular.
Over the span of his career, he has written several practice guides and academic articles, set up harm reduction services, and spoken at conferences across the world. He has developed and delivered specialist training across the UK and Ireland since 2007.
Chris will be sharing insights about experiences responding to nitazenes in the UK, which have been detected in substances sold as other opioids, benzodiazepines, and cannabis.
Associate Professor Katherine Isoardi
Emergency Physician and Clinical Toxicologist, Princess Alexandra Hospital (Qld) | Medical Director Qld Poisons Info Centre, Australia
Katherine is an Emergency Physician and Clinical Toxicologist based in Brisbane. She is the Director of the Princess Alexandra Hospital Clinical Toxicology unit and Medical Director of the Queensland Poisons Information Centre. She is also the president of Toxicology and Poisoning Network Australasia (TAPNA).
She is an enthusiastic clinical researcher, and her interests include the management of illicit drug poisoning, the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of drugs in overdose, and snake envenomation. Katherine is currently undertaking a PhD titled “Opioid Overdose and its Reversal” through the University of Newcastle.
Katherine will discuss the emergence of nitazenes locally, including recent nitazene presentations to Australian hospital emergency departments, and how clinical experiences have informed local surveillance and harm reduction responses.
