Robin van der Sanden 

Robin is a Post Doctoral Fellow at SHORE. She completed her Doctorate with SHORE in 2023. Her PhD thesis explores the rise of social media and messaging app-facilitated drug markets in New Zealand and their impact on established drug trading practices. Robin’s work centres around the intersection between digital technologies, drug trading and drug use. She currently works as part of SHORE & Whāriki’s Drug Research Team, and is involved in a variety of projects on vaping, and cannabis policy, as well as the Team’s annual New Zealand Drug Trends survey.

Email: R.vanderSanden@massey.ac.nz

Journal articles

van der Sanden, R., Wilkins, C., Rychert, M., & Barratt, M. J. (2023). Social Supply and the Potential for Harm Reduction in Social Media Drug Markets. Contemporary Drug Problems, 50(3), 381-401. https://doi.org/10.1177/00914509231178940 A614

van der Sanden, R., Wilkins, C., & Rychert, M. (2023). “I straight up criminalized myself on messenger”: law enforcement risk management among people who buy and sell drugs on social media. Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy, published online June 20. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687637.2023.2224497 A600

van der Sanden, R., Wilkins, C., Rychert, M., & Barratt, M. J. (2022). 'Choice' of social media platform or encrypted messaging app to buy and sell illegal drugs. International Journal of Drug Policy, 108, 103819, doi:10.1016/j.drugpo.2022.103819 A590

van der Sanden, R., Wilkins, C., Rychert, M., & Barratt, M. J. (2022). The Use of Discord Servers to Buy and Sell Drugs. Contemporary Drug Problems, 49(4), 453-477, doi:10.1177/00914509221095279 A589

Rychert, M., Wilkins, C., van der Sanden, R., & Prasad, J. (2022). Exploring digital news, advocacy networks and social media campaigns ‘for’ and ‘against’ cannabis legalisation during New Zealand’s cannabis legalisation referendum. Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy, published online June 29, 1-11, doi:10.1080/09687637.2022.2090897 A585

van der Sanden, R., Wilkins, C., Romeo, J., Rychert ,M., Barratt M. (2021). Predictors of using social media to purchase drugs in New Zealand: Findings from a large-scale online survey. International Journal of Drug Policy, 98, 103430. doi: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2021.103430 A543