17 April 2019

We have a PhD scholarship available for darknet research in New Zealand (attached). The recipient will be based at SHORE & Whariki (Massey University) in Auckland, New Zealand (with Associate Professor Chris Wilkins and Dr. Marta Rychert) and a wider team of well-known Australian drug researchers including Dr. Monica Barratt and Professor Jochen Mueller. Please feel free to circulate widely.

Doctoral Scholarship

Applications are invited to apply for a PhD scholarship with the drug research team at the SHORE & Whariki Research Centre, College of Health, Massey University, New Zealand in the field of online encrypted drug markets (known as “darknets”). The PhD is part of a wider study of the impact of darknets in New Zealand funded by the New Zealand Royal Society Marsden Fund. This three-year scholarship is valued at NZ $27,500 p.a. plus tuition fees. The candidate will be based at our offices in central Auckland, New Zealand. This scholarship could suit a candidate from a number of disciplines including computer science, criminology, health, law and economics.

Those who are interested in applying are invited to email Associate Professor Chris Wilkins with a brief outline of their relevant experience, curriculum vitae and one piece of academic writing by the 10th June 2019 c.wilkins@massey.ac.nz.

You can read about our recent research at

https://shoreandwhariki.ac.nz/chris-wilkins

https://shoreandwhariki.ac.nz/

Applying for the Scholarship

It is expected the candidate will hold a first class honour’s or master’s degree in an area relevant to the topic area. Applicants must meet the University’s criteria for entry into the PhD programme and have a grade average sufficient to be eligible for a doctoral scholarship (i.e. GPA 7.5+).

You can down load PDF here.

29 Mar 2019

SHORE & Whariki hosted Associate Professor Treena Delmorier, McGill University, who presented a seminar on ‘Food Sovereignty and Indigenous Health Promotion: Approaches for improving nutrition, food systems and well-being’.

12 March 2019

Dr Taisia Huckle of SHORE & Whariki Research Centre was awarded the College of Health Golden Apple Award for Research 2019 and received the award from the PVC Jane Mills at the Albany campus PVC Forum. Dr Huckle has succeeded regularly in contestible research funding rounds, in peer reviewed publications and also in knowledge translation in her area of alcohol policy research.

26 Feb 2019

A massive haul of methamphetamine hidden in golf carts has been intercepted by customs.

The drugs were sent from the US in shipping containers but are believed to have come from a Mexican drug cartel.

Massey University Senior Drug Researcher Chris Wilkins spoke to The AM Show.

Watch the video here.

25 Feb 2019

The NZ Herald published a commentary by Professor Sally Casswell about legalising cannabis.

Please see details here.

25 Feb 2019

A meeting co-hosted with Cath Edmonson of the Health Promotion Agency included stakeholders from government ministries and agencies, Maori stakeholders and community sector. It met to discuss the proposal to co-produce a developmental and evaluation platform to improve alcohol policy and reduce alcohol social harm.  Funding bids are being prepared.

21 January 2019

SHORE & Whariki Research Centre has released the results of a pilot survey in a research bulletin titled ‘Could the community alcohol licensing trust model be applied to regulate legal cannabis?’

Click here to see a Newshub interview with Dr Marta Rychert who led the study.

20 Nov 2018

Dr Taisia Huckle from Massey University’s SHORE & Whāriki Research Centre has been awarded a Sir Charles Hercus Health Research Fellowship from the Health Research Council of New Zealand.

The $500,000 grant will fund Dr Huckle’s latest research project, entitled Alcohol’s harm to others: impacts on children of problem/heavy drinkers, and will be carried out over the next four years. See more details here.

16 Nov 2018

Dr Octavia Calder-Dawe, a Researcher at SHORE and Whāriki, was recently awarded a $300,000 Marsden Fast Start Grant from the Royal Society Te Apārangi for her project “Relentlessly positive? Exploring the imprint of positivity imperatives on the affective lives of young women.” Undertaken in collaboration with AI Professor Margaret Wetherell (University of Auckland), the project will explore the imprint of positivity imperatives on women’s everyday emotional lives, with a particular focus on social media. The project will yield new theory and methods for investigating how the emotional tenor of policy and popular culture intersects with the conduct of everyday life.

See more details here.

Dr Marta Rychert, Postdoctoral Fellow at SHORE & Whariki, was awarded $300,000 research grant from the Royal Society Marsden Fund for her project entitled “Legal cannabis for sale: home-grown or supermarket?”.

Dr Rychert, together with research team which includes SHORE Associate Professor Chris Wilkins and Professor Beau Kilmer (RAND Corporation) will investigate not-for-profit models for regulation of legal cannabis. Findings will contribute to the ongoing debate about cannabis law reform in New Zealand and around the world. More details see here.

Dark side of the Net: Exploring and modelling the impact of online illegal drug markets – Social and Health Outcomes Research and Evaluation (SHORE) and Whāriki Research Centre.
Associate Professor Chris Wilkins has been awarded $836,000 to lead this research, alongside Dr Monica Barratt, University of New South Wales, Professor Jochen Mueller, University of Queensland and Dr Marta Rychert, SHORE and Whāriki Research Centre. See more details here.

A fourth research bulletin has been released from the New Zealand Drug Trends survey on preferred options for cannabis law reform in New Zealand. See the Massey news page for more information. Click here to see a Newshub interview with Associate Professor Chris Wilkins who leads the study.

Professor Sally Casswell  was interviewed on The AM Show about ‘Why alcohol Policy is Not Working’. Here is a link to the interview: https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/shows/2018/10/why-alcohol-policy-is-not-working.html

Sally Casswell participated in the Boston University School of Public Health Dean’s symposium on ‘Private Sector Collaborations with Academic Public Health: opportunities and challenges held on October 2nd.  She presented in the alcohol case study  and engaged in a Q and A session with Dr Scott Ratzen, President of the ABInBev Foundation.

Watch here:  

http://www.bu.edu/sph/news-events/signature-programs/deans-symposia/private-sector-collaborations-with-academic-public-health-opportunities-and-challenges/

Professor Sally Casswell was a resource person at a week long workshop held in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic in which senior government officials from health, justice, finance and trade from four countries: Viet Nam, Lao PDR, Cambodia and Mongolia came together to develop effective alcohol policy. This was the second module of a project organised by the Western Pacific Regional Office of the World Health Organisation. ‘This is a contribution we make as a World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre in alcohol and drug policy and provides a very valuable insight into the alcohol environment and the activities of the alcohol industry globally’ said Professor Casswell.

Extensive Beer Lao marketing is targeted in the new draft Decree on Alcohol Control in Lao PDR.

Research funding for Quantifying the disease burden of alcohol’s harm to others

Professor Sally Casswell has been awarded nearly $1 million in funding from the Health Research Council of New Zealand, to investigate what is known as the “second hand” harm of alcohol, the effects of heavy drinking on others. Professor Casswell will lead the research, alongside Dr Taisia Huckle, Professor Helen Moewaka Barnes and Dr Jose Romeo, SHORE & Whāriki Research Centre, Massey University, Professor Jennie Connor, School of Medicine, University of Otago and Professor Jurgen Rehm, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Canada. See the Massey News page for more details.

Members of the research team for the Enabling participation for disabled children and young people project met with research participants, sector activists and NZSL interpreters at SHORE & Whariki Research Centre on September 19 (2018) to discuss preliminary findings from the project.  The three-year HRC-funded project, which ends in December, involves researchers from Massey, AUT and Auckland universities, 35 Deaf and disabled young people and their parents, and sector key informants.  Key questions were:

What’s working well and what needs to change to enable the community participation of Deaf and disabled young people?

How does this differ for Deaf and hearing impaired, vision-impaired and mobility impaired young people?

What are the parents’ experiences and how do these differ from those of the young people?

Māori attitudes and behaviours towards alcohol

Emerald Muriwai, Dr Taisia Huckle and Dr Jose Romeo (SHORE & Whāriki Research Centre, Massey University) were contracted by the Health Promotion Agency analyse the Attitudes and Behaviour towards Alcohol Survey (ABAS) data to assess Māori attitudes and behaviours. 

The analysis used a strengths-based and Kaupapa Māori analytic approach finding Māori who were male and in younger age groups were found to be more likely to be drinkers across a variety of time frames, and more likely to be identified as risky drinkers. Māori women reported lower percentages for all four drinking measures than Māori men. Location analyses revealed that Māori from the South Island had an increased likelihood of being a last year and past four weeks drinker and consuming at a level of two or more drinks on the last occasion. However, Māori from the South Island were less likely to report at least one negative experience from drinking. On the other hand, Māori from Auckland were more likely to agree with the statement “In some situations it is hard to say I am not drinking’ and “Binge drinking is part of kiwi culture””.

Our findings suggest that Māori with no formal education were less likely to be identified as last year or past four-week drinkers compared to those with formal qualifications. However, Māori with no formal education were more likely to be identified as risky drinkers, relative to those in the degree/postgraduate qualification category. Young people were more likely to experience at least one negative experience while drinking and to report getting drunk or intoxicated when compared to those 55 years and over. When looking at access to alcohol, most participants agreed it was easy to get to licensed premises from where they lived.

This report explores the context of drinking from a Māori perspective. Specifically, the results are discussed amongst a context of systemic issues uniquely faced by Māori. Furthermore, recommendations for future research and continued indigenous data sovereignty are explored. 

Please see more details here.

The New Zealand Medical Journal has just published an editorial by Associate Professor Chris Wilkins and Dr Marta Rychert on Responding to a new wave of high potency synthetic cannabinoids.

The Gambling Research Exchange in Ontario have published a plain language summary of a recent article by Chris Wilkins on ‘Adapting a “not-for-profit” regulatory approach for gaming machine gambling to legal recreational cannabis’. Click here to read the summary.