Emmert Roberts
Dr Emmert Roberts is an MRC Clinical Research Fellow in the National Addiction Centre, King’s College London (KCL) and a Specialist Registrar in Substance Misuse Psychiatry at the South London and the Maudsley (SLaM) NHS Foundation Trust. He graduated with distinctions in medicine and epidemiology from the University of Oxford, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). He is a member of both the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Psychiatrists, and his current research focus is on drug and alcohol service provision and its impact on hospitalisation and mortality. Throughout the COVID-19 outbreak he has been working as the clinical lead for the Homeless Hotel Drug and Alcohol Support Service (HDAS-London), the first pan-London commissioned drug and alcohol service providing alcohol, tobacco and drug support to those individuals experiencing rough sleeping temporarily housed in hotel accommodation across the capital.
E-cigarettes, vaping and illicit drugs
The increase in availability and affordability of a wide range of commercially manufactured e-cigarette devices has led to the potential for vaping to become a more common method of administration for many illicit substances. With the increase in both academic interest and media attention around illicit substance vaping since the development of several cases of EVALI (e-cigarette or vaping product use associated lung injury) in the U. S. A. in 2019 (an outbreak that was linked to unregulated tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) products containing vitamin E acetate), this session will explore which illicit drugs are increasingly reported to be vaped, what the future might hold for users vaping illicit substances, and how clinicians and academics might be able to safeguard against the potential harms caused by vaping illicit drugs.
Dr Roberts is funded by a Medical Research Council Addiction Research Clinical (MARC) Fellowship.
Presentation slides: E-cigarettes, vaping and illicit drugs