
Alcohol and other drugs
Alcohol and other drugs contribute to premature death, disability and social exclusion. Attitudes and behaviours towards alcohol and other drugs change rapidly, particularly among young people. New substances such as synthetic opioids like nitazenes can emerge at any time.
Challenges of alcohol and other drugs
In Australia, premature death caused by alcohol cost $2.6 billion in the year to June 2018, according to the National Drug Research Institute. The cost of lost quality of life due to alcohol was $20.7 billion. The total cost to Australia of alcohol use was $66.8 billion.
More than 645,000 Australians used extra-medical opioids in the year to June 2016 and over 70,000 years of life were lost to premature death.
Extra-medical opioids are those that were not taken as part of a prescription or medical treatment.
New substances can gain in popularity at any time, presenting new challenges.
Burnet studies these issues and takes a harm reduction approach to tackling them. This means we focus more on reducing drug-related harm and the negative impacts of substance use rather than solely trying to prevent it.
Stigma and discrimination
People who use alcohol and other drugs frequently face stigma and discrimination. Harmful stereotypes continue to influence public attitudes and government policy responses.
For example, when women who use or inject drugs become pregnant, they may be fearful of attending health services for necessary checkups due to the stigma associated with drug use. This means they may miss out on vital care and monitoring – a danger to the health of mother and child.
Emerging substances and trends
Novel psychoactive substances including synthetic opioids are emerging more frequently in drug markets. This requires rapid analysis to detect and respond to potential harms.
Among young people, attitudes to alcohol and other drugs and related behaviours shift rapidly. Smoking rates have dropped among this group, but vaping has surged. Nicotine pouches have become popular among young people. Nicotine pouches are small bags of synthetic nicotine placed between the lips and gums and absorbed rapidly into the bloodstream. Harms related to nicotine pouches are poorly understood.
Stories
View 19 more
Generation X disproportionately impacted by methamphetamine-related deaths
Australia’s generation X face the highest risk of death from methamphetamine-related causes among all age groups, according to a new Burnet Institute study.

Australia faces rising threats from synthetic opioids
Reports of synthetic opioids contaminating Australia’s drug supply highlight the concerning pace at which they are entering the country. The Australian Federal Police recently raised concerns after detecting nitazenes in counterfeit pharmaceutical products seized at Australian borders.

Dorabjee Award recipients driving change through harm reduction
Announcing Bambang Yulistyo Dwo Mulyanto and Sujata Khadka, winners of the 2025 Dorabjee Awards.
Our approach and expertise
Our work is multidisciplinary, reflecting the complex nature of alcohol and other drug use. We combine social, behavioural and clinical research to help develop evidence-based policy and practice with the aim of harm reduction. We apply this research to projects embedded in the community to drive lasting change.
Working closely with people who use drugs
Burnet has long-standing relationships with people who use drugs, co-designing research and programs with them. This includes:
- programs that provide take-home naloxone, a medication that reverses opioid overdoses
- supervised injecting facilities that have been shown to save lives.
We commit to outreach, including mobile settings, to meet people on their own terms. For example, our SuperMIX study runs from mobile vans which visit different health services and sites around Melbourne.
Healthy ageing
Our vision is ethical, equitable and designed for long-term engagement. For example, we focus on healthy ageing, creating opportunities for people who use alcohol and other drugs to have fulfilling lives as they get older.
Addressing criminal justice system harms
We also work in justice health—healthcare for people with current or historical involvement in the criminal justice system.
Worldwide, people involved in the criminal justice system are disproportionately affected by social disadvantage, chronic ill health, preventable disease and poor mental health.
Current drug policy in Australia means there are disproportionately high rates of people who use drugs in prisons.
Our research builds evidence and influences policy and practice to improve health outcomes for people with a history of involvement in the criminal justice system. The Forest is an example of how we have used our research—and input from people with lived experience – to inform a proposed public health model that addresses the underlying causes of incarceration and reincarceration.
Policy and advocacy
We contribute to national policy and guideline development through government submissions and our membership on advisory panels including the National Drug Strategy Household Survey.
We collaborate with agencies such as the World Health Organization and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Our involvement supports the development of approaches at state and federal levels that are developed with people who use drugs.
We support international projects through WHO and UN partners in Central Asia, Ukraine and Pacific island countries.
Long-running cohort studies
We’re renowned for our cohort studies, which have produced new evidence with wide-ranging impact.
Cohort studies follow groups of people over time to see how factors such as habits or exposures can affect their health. These studies enable us to evaluate policy interventions and the impacts that policy has on health outcomes for people who use drugs.
MIXMAX is the largest active cohort study of people who use drugs in Australia. It combines 2 pre-existing studies:
- SuperMIX, which began in 2008, and follows more than 2000 people who inject drugs
- VMAX, a study that began in 2016 and tracks patterns of methamphetamine use in a sample of more than 850 people who use methamphetamine in metropolitan and rural Victoria.
Young people
We seek to understand how alcohol and other drugs affect the health of young people. We are able to do this effectively by asking young people how they want to engage in research.
Our long-running Sex, Drugs and Rock ’n’ Roll study tracks annual patterns of consumption and the impact of health policies on young people.
The Mobile Intervention for Drinking in Young People (MIDY) study collected data on binge drinking. Young people would answer questions sent to them as text messages on their mobile phone while out drinking at night.
Our key achievements
Centre for Research Excellence into Injecting Drug Use
Bringing together universities, consumer organisations and research institutes, we launched the Centre for Research Excellence into Injecting Drug Use. CREIDU builds community knowledge about injecting drug use, improving policy and practice for the benefit of all.
Policy change
Our research has influenced and improved policies around substance use and service provision. These studies have uncovered new evidence about associated harms and evaluated the effectiveness of health programs and the methods used to treat such harms.
- SuperMIX has influenced service design and interventions with real-world, user-centric data. Data from the study has informed state government alcohol and drug treatment services including the Medically Supervised Injecting Room Trial. SuperMIX also plays an important role in systematic reviews and international collaborative studies on issues such as homelessness and hepatitis C among people who inject drugs.
- VMAX data serves a crucial function, bringing to light issues related to drug driving and influencing service provision.
- Data from the Sex, Drugs and Rock ’n’ Roll study has been used to assess public health policies and programs. These include the impact of changes to vaping laws, young people’s understanding of drinking guidelines and perceptions of government health promotion campaigns.
Featured publications
National consensus statement on opioid agonist treatment in custodial settings
The Medical Journal of Australia
Jocelyn Chan et al
A systematic review of adolescent alcohol‐related harm trends in high‐income countries with declines in adolescent consumption
Addiction
Emma Vieira et al
Age, period and cohort trends in hospital admissions for alcohol‐related liver disease in Australia, 1993–2020
Drug and Alcohol Review
Michael Livingston et al
Disproportionate, differential and targeted treatment: people who use drugs’ experiences of policing during the COVID-19 pandemic
Health & Justice
Shelley Walker et al
20-year trends in Australian methamphetamine-related deaths, 2001–2020
International Journal of Drug Policy
Oisin Stronach et al
The National Naloxone Reference Group: A collective voice on take‐home naloxone policy and practice in Australia
Drug and Alcohol Review
Paul Dietze et al
Our projects
View 51 more
Young people’s health in Australia: statistics from the Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll survey
Every year, we survey young people about their sexual health, drug use, mental health and wellbeing. That data informs public health policies and programs.
Towards reliable pathway enrichment
Pathway enrichment analysis is crucial for understanding genomic data, but misuse threatens the research. We aim to improve enrichment analysis in the scientific literature.

Methamphetamine and injecting drug use cohort studies: MIXMAX
MIXMAX is the largest active cohort study of people who use drugs in Australia. It combines 2 pre-existing studies: SuperMIX and VMAX.
Our working groups
