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Monica Barratt

NHMRC Post-Doc Research Fellow, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW
Dr Monica Barratt joined the Drug Policy Modelling Program at NDARC in 2014 after being awarded a National Health and Medical Research Council post-doctoral fellowship. Monica's research concerns the social and public health implications of internet technologies for people who use illicit and emerging psychoactive drugs, and the impacts of legislative responses to drug use and drug problems. Monica is particularly interested in how we respond to the emergence of new/novel drug trends and how these trends and responses are enabled by digital technologies. She specialises in engaging hard-to-reach networks and groups in digital spaces in conversations about research and policy. Through this engagement, Monica's work acts as a conduit between these groups and policy makers, and contributes to policy change.

Prior to her current appointment, Monica worked as a Research Fellow at the National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University, where she also completed her postgraduate studies. She has also worked at Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre, the University of Melbourne, Deakin University and the Australian Drug Foundation.

Dark web, not dark alley: why drug sellers see the internet as a lucrative safe haven

Mar 05, 2020 05:07 am UTC| Technology

More than six years after the demise of Silk Road, the worlds first major drug cryptomarket, the dark web is still home to a thriving trade in illicit drugs. These markets host hundreds, or in some cases thousands, of...

The profile of festival drug takers might be different to what you expect

Jul 18, 2019 23:39 pm UTC| Insights & Views Health

A NSW Coronial Inquest investigating a series of drug-related deaths at Australian music festivals has heard evidence of festival goers taking multiple concurrent doses of MDMA to avoid police detection and not receiving...

Testing festival goers' pills isn't the only way to reduce overdoses. Here's what else works

Jul 08, 2019 23:40 pm UTC| Insights & Views Health

The NSW inquest into recent drug deaths at music festivals is due to start this week. So focus is turning to how to make music festivals safer by reducing drug-related incidents. We know that prohibition doesnt work to...

Instadrugs: new research reveals hidden dangers when young people use apps to buy illicit substances

Jan 27, 2019 14:52 pm UTC| Insights & Views Health

Markets for illicit drugs are constantly evolving to increase profits and reduce risks to suppliers in response to law enforcement tactics. New technologies have been taken up with enthusiasm: from the use of pagers and...

Economy

The US is one of the least trade-oriented countries in the world – despite laying the groundwork for today’s globalized system

Given the spate of news about international trade lately, Americans might be surprised to learn that the U.S. isnt very dependent on it. Indeed, looking at trade as a percentage of gross domestic product a metric...

Beyond the spin, beyond the handouts, here’s how to get a handle on what’s really happening on budget night

Three weeks from now, some of us will be presented with a mountain of budget papers, and just about all of us will get to hear about them on radio, TV or news websites on budget night. The quickest way to find out what...

Johannesburg in a time of darkness: Ivan Vladislavić’s new memoir reminds us of the city’s fragility

Ivan Vladislavić is Johannesburgs literary linkman. He tells us, in the first pages of his new book, The Near North, that before cities were lit, first by gaslight and later electricity, people of means paid torchbearers...

Economist Chris Richardson on an ‘ugly’ inflation result and the coming budget

With Jim Chalmerss third budget on May 14, Australians will be looking for some more cost-of-living relief beyond the tax cuts although they have been warned extra measures will be modest. As this weeks consumer price...

Inflation is slowly falling, while student debt is climbing: 6 graphs that explain today’s CPI

Australias inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and its now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. The annual rate peaked at 7.8% in the December quarter of 2022 and is now just 3.6%, in...

Politics

US Urges China, Russia to Reject AI Control in Nuclear Arms, Align with Global Norms

Paul Dean, a senior U.S. arms control official, emphasized the critical need for China and Russia to join the U.S. in declaring that humans will always decide on the deployment of nuclear weapons, not artificial...

South Africa’s youth are a generation lost under democracy – study

South African president Cyril Ramaphosa recently painted a rosy picture in which the countrys youth democracys children had enormous opportunities for advancement, all thanks to successive post-apartheid governments led...

Sadiq Khan on track for third term as London mayor – but nearly half of Londoners dissatisfied with performance

Polls have consistently shown that the incumbent mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, appears to be on track to win a third term in office at the upcoming mayoral elections on May 2. One poll we commissioned as part of our...

Biden administration tells employers to stop shackling workers with ‘noncompete agreements’

Most American workers are hired at will: Employers owe their employees nothing in the relationship except earned wages, and employees are at liberty to quit at their option. As the rule is generally stated, either party...

Labour can afford to be far more ambitious with its economic policies – voters are on board

To say that the Labour party is flying high in the polls is something of an understatement. But despite its consistent lead against the Tories, the opposition finds itself in a rather odd position: on the cusp of power but...

Science

IceCube researchers detect a rare type of energetic neutrino sent from powerful astronomical objects

About a trillion tiny particles called neutrinos pass through you every second. Created during the Big Bang, these relic neutrinos exist throughout the entire universe, but they cant harm you. In fact, only one of them is...

The Mars Sample Return mission has a shaky future, and NASA is calling on private companies for backup

A critical NASA mission in the search for life beyond Earth, Mars Sample Return, is in trouble. Its budget has ballooned from US$5 billion to over $11 billion, and the sample return date may slip from the end of this...

A Nasa rover has reached a promising place to search for fossilised life on Mars

While we go about our daily lives on Earth, a nuclear-powered robot the size of a small car is trundling around Mars looking for fossils. Unlike its predecessor Curiosity, Nasas Perseverance rover is explicitly intended to...

The rising flood of space junk is a risk to us on Earth – and governments are on the hook

A piece of space junk recently crashed through the roof and floor of a mans home in Florida. Nasa later confirmed that the object had come from unwanted hardware released from the international space station. The 700g,...

Peter Higgs was one of the greats of particle physics. He transformed what we know about the building blocks of the universe

Peter Higgs, who gave his name to the subatomic particle known as the Higgs boson, has died aged 94. He was always a modest man, especially when considering that he was one of the greats of particle physics the area of...

Technology

Shiba Inu Coin Rockets as Burn Rate Skyrockets 1000% Amidst Market Rally

Shiba Inu Coin (SHIB) ignites the crypto market with a phenomenal rally, propelled by a staggering 1000% surge in burn rates. As 29.11 million SHIB tokens are destroyed, market confidence soars, pushing SHIB past crucial...

Dogecoin Surges 13% as Network Activity Soars, Hits 28,000 New Addresses

Dogecoin experiences a remarkable surge, with its price skyrocketing by 13% in response to an unprecedented rise in network activity. On-chain analytics reveal a staggering influx of 28,000 new addresses, signaling renewed...

Bitcoin Surges Over $63K Amid Revitalized ETF Interest

In a whirlwind of crypto markets, Bitcoin stormed past the $63,000 mark, fueled by renewed ETF activity. Ethereum mirrored the bullish sentiment, holding steady above $3,100. Solana, XRP, and Cardano followed suit, marking...

Tesla's Supercharger Shake-up Sparks Chaos: Suppliers in Limbo Over Email Directive

A turbulent email to suppliers reveals internal discord in the wake of Teslas sweeping Supercharger team termination. The abrupt restructuring has left projects in limbo, signaling potential operational turmoil within the...

US Loosens EV Battery Rules, Expands Tax Credit Eligibility Amid Controversy

Amidst escalating tensions over electric vehicle (E.V.) tax credits, the U.S. government has relaxed stringent regulations, potentially widening eligibility for tax credits up to $7,500. This move, aimed at accelerating...