Expert Advisory Committee

Global Drug Survey is the creation of experts from academia and healthcare, brought together through a shared mission to change how drugs are understood forever.

Our expert panel includes an NHS Director, GP, toxicologist, clinical psychologist, legal expert, user representative, academics from the social sciences and research and communications specialists.

Between them they have worked with a large number of national and international organisations, in roles from treatment and law to policy and practice.

Their experience includes work within:

• National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse
• NHS
• Charities
• Think Tanks
• Universities
• National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse
• UK Drug Policy Commission
• Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD)
• Royal College of General Practitioners’ (RCGP) Sex, Drugs and HIV Task Group
• Substance Misuse Management in General Practice (SMMGP)
• RCGP Drug Training Unit
• NTA Expert Prescribing Group
• UK Harm Reduction Alliance (UKHRA)
• User lead organizations
• TICTAC Communications Ltd., at St. George’s University of London (SGUL) Workplace drug testing consultant
• Barrister

The Drug Experts Panel

Dr Adam Winstock

Adam is a Consultant Psychiatrist, Addiction Medicine Specialist and researcher based in London. Adam has held senior academic posts at renowned institutions including King’s College London (UK) and The University of New South Wales (Australia). He has published over 80 papers, book chapters and research monographs, and has advised national and international drug research and public policy bodies.

Annette Dale-Perera

Annette is currently Strategic Director of Addiction and Offender Care for CNWL NHS Foundation Trust. Her background is in psychology: she spent 6 yrs as a practitioner, 6 yrs as a research fellow with Imperial College and then 7 yrs as Director of Policy for DrugScope – a national charity and drug think-tank. Prior to joining CNWL, she was Director of Quality at the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse. She is also a commissioner on the UK Drug Policy Commission, a trustee of the charity AdFam and a member of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD).

Dr Chris Ford

Chris has been a GP in London for 15 years and works with a large number of drug users in general practice and enjoys this work. She is the chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners’ (RCGP) Sex, Drugs and HIV Task Group. Having been on the steering group of Substance Misuse Management in General Practice (SMMGP) since its start, she has been the GP facilitator and medical input to SMMGP for the past 2 years and is advisory editor of the SMMGP newsletter, Network.Chris is the Clinical Director of International Doctors for Healthy Drug (IDHP).

Chris is also the Special Projects Lead and London regional clinical lead, to the RCGP Drug Training Unit. She is a member of the NTA Expert Prescribing Group and a member of the UK Harm Reduction Alliance (UKHRA). She is also the chair of the Alliance, a drug user led organisation, which encourages drug users and professionals to work together to try and improve drug services.

Dr John Ramsey

John is an analytical toxicologist and Director of TICTAC Communications Ltd., at St. George’s University of London (SGUL). TICTAC is a commercial database used by UK Healthcare and Law & Order professional to identify drugs. TICTAC analyses the contents of club amnesty bins, attends outdoor music festivals and test purchases drugs from websites and head shops in order to monitor the appearance on new compounds used as drugs. John is a founder member of the team at SGUL that monitors mortality from Volatile Substance Abuse and is a consultant to Concateno on workplace drug testing issues.

Matthew Southwell

Matthew is Project Manager for the International Network of People who Use Drugs (INPUD). He is working with the INPUD Board to help design, fund and develop the organisational model, communications systems and campaigning approach of this new global network of people who use drugs. Mat has a particular expertise in drug user organisation, change management, stimulants and route transition interventions.

Niamh Eastwood

Niamh is a non-practising barrister; she initially joined Release in 2002 as a legal advisor, was appointed Head of Legal Services in 2007 and Deputy Director in 2009. She is particularly interested in the issue of civil liberties and is concerned that the current trend of limiting rights impacts disproportionately on drug users. Niamh is interested in developing Release’s legal capacity with a view to becoming more involved in public law as way of challenging unacceptable practices in the arenas of health, criminal justice and education.

Dr Luke Mitcheson

Luke is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist who has worked in the area of drug and alcohol treatment since 1993. As well as working with clients with co-occurring substance use and mental health problems he is involved in training and supervising staff in the use of psychosocial interventions. He is involved with a number of research projects investigating the implementation of evidence based psychological interventions in real-life treatment settings. He has worked with Dr Adam Winstock since 2001 coordinating the UK’s MixMag annual drug survey.

Monica Barrett

Monica Barratt is a Research Fellow and PhD Candidate at the National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University, Melbourne, Australia. She has just submitted her PhD thesis ‘Beyond internet as tool: A mixed-methods study of online drug discussion’. Her research interests centre on how illicit drugs are used in an increasingly interconnected world and how internet use affects drug demand, supply and harm. Monica’s work can be found in academic forums as well as online public forums. Monica also volunteers at the international drug harm-reduction website Bluelight.ru as Director of Research.