Emerging Drugs Network of Australia


The Emerging Drugs Network of Australia is a collaborative multi-agency project to detect new illicit drugs, and their clinical effects. It is also designed to support early warning systems of illicit drugs and new psychoactive substances across Australia, and to inform policy and decision making processes.
The early warning system involves sharing of information between emergency department physicians, toxicologists, and forensic laboratories across the country. This allows emerging trends to be discovered, and for specific treatment measures to be developed based on objective data.
The EDNA started from research conducted at Royal Perth Hospital in collaboration with, initiated after a large number of patients were hospitalised after consuming a drug, which they thought was ecstasy, on New Year's Eve 2013. In 2016, two patients in the intensive care unit were found, through analysis conducted by forensic scientists, to have consumed a toxic synthetic drug NBOMe. A quick public health response, including a warning by Western Australian police and pictures of the capsules, is thought to have prevented serious illnesses and deaths by deterring some people from taking the drug, according to a report by Royal Perth Hospital emergency doctors David McCutcheon and Jessamine Soderstrom presented to the New South Wales Coroners Court's 2019 inquest into the drug-related deaths at music festivals.
In 2020 the program received $3.7 million in federal funding over five years.

Aims

EDNA has three major aims:
  1. To establish a common scope of analysis with high sensitivity to identify new and emerging NPS and highly toxic psychoactive substances,
  2. To determine clinical patterns of toxicity associated with the illicit drugs and NPS involved in ED presentations, and how these relate to patient outcomes,
  3. To support local early warning responses by sharing clinical and toxicological information across key agencies to inform public health and harm reduction policy.

Methods

Currently, 16 emergency departments across six states in Australia contribute to the EDNA Registry. Across each contributing state, patients presenting with severe and/or unusual clinical features consistent with recreational illicit drug or novel psychoactive substance toxicity, and/or patients presenting as part of a suspected cluster of illicit drug poisonings, are identified for inclusion. Further information about eligibility criteria can be found in the published methodology paper.
Samples submitted to laboratories are tested for a broad range of substances, including synthetic cathinones, cannabinoids, designer opioids and other NPS. Most NPS can only be detected using specialised analytical instrumentation and expertise provided by our national network of forensic laboratories. Methods such as Liquid Chromatography Triple Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry, Liquid Chromatography Quadrupole Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry and Gas Chromatography–Triple Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry, provide the capability to detect low dose–high potency drugs.

Outputs

Initial results from Western Australia were published in 2023, highlighting the predominance of methylamphetamine and novel benzodiazepines within ED presentations suspected of severe or unusual illicit intoxication.
All formal outputs published by any EDNA Investigator, including the Quarterly and Annual Reports can be found at the
Data collected from EDNA is also distributed to international data collections, including the UNODC Current NPS Threats Reports.