Associate Professor David Caldicott
ANU Medical School
ANU College of Health and Medicine
Associate Professor David Caldicott is based at the ANU Medical School and Clinical Lead of Pill Testing Australia.
Associate Professor Caldicott is a full-time emergency consultant, working in Canberra. He is the clinical lead for Pill Testing Australia and CanTEST, Australia’s only government-endorsed festival and fixed-site drug-checking services, respectively.
His research interests include novel and emerging illicit drugs, as well as exotic poisonings and overdoses, and systems for monitoring changes in the illicit drugs market.
Associate Professor Caldicott is actively involved in disaster response to natural, accidental and deliberate man-made disasters, and has a specialist in interest mass casualty incidents, and their management and mitigation. He is applying this to the management of the consequences of climate change, particularly in the Australian context.
Fields of expertise
Articles
What are quaaludes? Should you be worried they’ve been detected in Canberra?
Those who watch illicit substance markets know one thing: there’s no such thing as a truly new street…
Pill testing proves value of compassionate health interventions
As Australia’s first government-backed pill testing service hits two years in operation, its impacts are evident on both…
ANU chemists make Australian-first discovery of three new recreational drugs
Three new recreational drugs that have never been reported in Australia before have been identified by chemists at Australia’s…
MDMA involved in majority of drug-related deaths at Australian festivals
The majority of drug-related deaths at Australian music festivals over the past two decades have involved young people…
What is pill testing and how does it work?
From detecting a deadly synthetic opioid circulating in the community to the Australian-first discovery of a mysterious new…
There’s a psychedelic renaissance underway
The TGA’s approval of MDMA and psilocybin is a story of hope for these much maligned substances and…
We’ve detected a potent opioid in Canberra. Here’s what we know about it
Australia’s first government-sanctioned drug-checking service CanTEST has issued its inaugural ‘red alert’, the highest level of warning, following…
The mystery of chemical X: how drug testers discovered ‘CanKet’
What happens when drug testing experts come across a substance they have never seen before? An ANU expert…
ANU scientists make Australian-first detection of new drug
Scientists from The Australian National University (ANU) have detected a mysterious new recreational drug not seen in Australia…
We’ve been testing Canberra’s drugs. Here’s what we found
Australia’s first government pill-testing service, CanTEST Health and Drug Checking, opened in Canberra in July for a six-month…
Coke light: drug tests show 40% of ‘cocaine’ had no cocaine
Researchers from The Australian National University (ANU) have released results from Australia’s first government-backed pill testing service, including…