Rachel Sutherland

Dr Rachel Sutherland (BSocSc (Crim) Hons, PhD) is a Research Fellow at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales. She has worked on a multitude of research projects, most notably as the National Co-ordinator of the Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS) and the Ecstasy and related Drugs Reporting System (EDRS) (2011-2018). In 2018 Rachel completed her PhD, which examined the new psychoactive substances (NPS) market in Australia. Her research interests include illicit drug surveillance, NPS, cryptomarkets and harm reduction.

Rachel was recently awarded a National Health and Medical Research Council Investigator Fellowship (2021-2025), which will focus on:

1. Improving quantification of health harms associated with NPS use globally and in Australia;
2. Improving objective drug market surveillance to determine the extent of unwitting drug consumption and identify emerging drugs of concern; and
3. Developing and evaluating novel responses to emerging drugs of concern (i.e. NPS, crystalline methamphetamine).