Dalgarno's No Brainer

20/08/2026

20/08/2026

MORAL INJURY & PERMISSIVE DRUG POLICIES...


From the Abstract ."...literature does support a narrower but serious claim: where harm reduction is detached from the continuum of care, specifically, recovery-oriented care, and tacitly underwrites cultural normalisation, or becomes a substitute for demand reduction and treatment, it can contribute to an environment in which drug-related harms are socially managed rather than genuinely reduced, with downstream moral and communal consequences... "(Complete Research: https://www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au/wp_site/moral-injury-permissive-drug-policy-and-the-misuse-of-harm-reduction-a-synoptic-review-of-the-impact/ )

19/08/2026

HEADS UP! No Brainer eNews Update
Now!
https://mailchi.mp/dalgarnoinstitute/no-brainer-heads-up-august-2026-e-news-update-demandreduction?e=a92f7b2510

18/08/2026

Cannabis as a Gateway Drug for Opioid Use Disorder for profit - A Gateway to Opioid use?
Cannabis use in adolescence can do more than simply overlap with other risks — it can actively increase vulnerability to later opioid use. During the teen years, the brain is still wiring itself, strengthening decision making circuits and pruning old connections. Cannabis interferes with these processes by disrupting how brain cells communicate, how memories form, and how key genes are expressed. Research shows that these cannabis related changes occur in the same brain pathways that make opioids more rewarding and addictive. Animal studies repeatedly find that teens exposed to THC later consume more he**in, develop tolerance faster, and show gene expression patterns that make opioid addiction more likely. Human studies echo this pattern: frequent cannabis users are more likely to misuse prescription opioids, struggle to cut back opioid use, and meet criteria for opioid use disorder. High potency cannabis and cannabis linked worsening of depression, anxiety, or psychosis can push already vulnerable youth even closer to opioid initiation. Taken together, the evidence suggests that for some adolescents — especially those with genetic or mental health risks — cannabis can act as a harmful gateway, increasing the chances of opioid use, escalation, and addiction. (Research: https://www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au/wp_site/cannabis-as-a-gateway-drug-for-opioid-use-disorder-2/

17/08/2026

The Pub Lobby’s 24 Hour Alcohol Trading Fantasy Ahead of Brisbane 2032

Brisbane is under six years from lighting an Olympic cauldron. Yet the loudest voice shaping how the city gets ready is not a sports scientist or a public health strategist. It is Bernie Hogan, chief executive of the Queensland Hotels Association. His flagship ask is 24 hour alcohol trading across the state. In a recent Courier Mail interview, journalist Jeremy Pierce caught Hogan making his case over lunch at the Kirra Beach Hotel. There, he framed round the clock pub access as an overdue modernisation. Strip away the charm and the rib eye, though, and what remains is simpler. An industry wants more hours to sell more alcohol, dressed up as economic readiness for a global sporting event.
The Lobbyist’s Pitch For 24 Hour Alcohol Trading
Hogan is candid about what he does for a living. “You never really leave sales,” he told the Courier Mail, and it shows. He has worked as a sales rep for a string of newspapers and as a mining industry lobbyist. During four years living in Washington DC, he served as security director for the Australian Embassy. It was only after returning to Australia that he moved into a run of advocacy, lobbying and government relations roles, the kind of positions he says taught him that diplomacy is basically lobbying, advocacy, call it what you want. That skill set now points squarely at Queensland’s alcohol trading laws. (Complete Story https://wrdnews.org/24-hour-alcohol-trading-push-puts-industry-profit-first/)

16/08/2026

Dalgarno Institute August Fence Builder
Now!
https://mailchi.mp/dalgarnoinstitute/the-fence-builder-e-news-august-2026?e=61b9521b18

15/08/2026

Dark Web Drug Markets Are Booming While Prevention Is Left Behind

Dark web drug markets nearly doubled in size over the past year. Prevention barely kept pace. That’s the real story inside a new bulletin from the Drug Trends programme at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC), UNSW Sydney. Researchers tracked nineteen cryptomarkets from June 2025 to May 2026. Total drug listings climbed from 26,462 to 55,785, a jump of roughly 2.8 percent a month. Three markets closed along the way. Seven new ones opened to replace them. The report counts listings, tracks closures, and measures market share down to a tenth of a percent. It never quite asks where prevention and demand reduction fit into any of this. That gap is, in a lot of ways, the real headline… (More: https://wrdnews.org/dark-web-drug-markets-surge-while-prevention-efforts-lag-behind/)

14/08/2026

Drug Related Hospitalisations Surge Across Australia While Prevention Lags Behind

Australia recorded its steepest rise in drug related hospitalisations in almost a decade during 2023 to 2024. New figures from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at UNSW Sydney show hospital admissions linked to illicit drugs, prescription medicines and other substances climbed 10.5 percent on the previous year. That growth was more than double the rise seen across all causes of hospitalisation nationally.
The National Illicit Drug Indicators Project tracked 56,797 hospitalisations from drug use in the twelve months to June 2024. That works out to 216 admissions per 100,000 people. It marks the first statistically significant annual increase since 2015 to 2016. This reverses three years of decline that followed the early pandemic period. (More: https://wrdnews.org/drug-related-hospitalisations-surge-while-prevention-lags/)

13/08/2026

A Recovering Patient’s Letter to Future Doctors on Addiction Care

Recovery advocate Justin Bell wrote the piece for a friend, a physician. She was preparing her annual address to medical students. Her question was simple: what would a person in recovery say to a doctor stepping into their career? Bell answered with four lessons. They came from his own experience of addiction and healing. His insight also came from years spent listening to others describe their treatment. Too often, he found, well-meaning clinicians simply did not understand addiction.
Bell remembers a doctor once dismissing his escalating painkiller use as a “bump in the road.” The doctor sent him out the door soon after. That memory shapes the whole piece. Bell argues that recovery advice for doctors has to start with attitude, long before it reaches a prescription pad.
Recovery Advice for Doctors Starts With the Odds
The first lesson challenges a common assumption in medicine. Many doctors treat addiction as a lifelong or fatal condition. Bell disagrees, and the numbers back him up. He cites Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration data. Among the 31 million American adults who have ever had a drug or alcohol problem, 74 percent have resolved it. Bell argues that calling recovery merely possible undersells the odds. It robs patients of hope at the exact moment they need it most. (More: https://nobrainer.org.au/index.php/resources/i-need-to-stop-this-help/1711-a-recovering-patients-letter-to-future-doctors-on-addiction-care)

13/08/2026

and Respiratory DONT Mix!

A new Canadian study links cannabis smoking lung damage, with inflammation, mucus buildup, and emphysema like changes.