A live episode! In front of a lovely crowd at the awesome Latitude Festival, back in July 2021. Suzi Gage headed to Suffolk and was joined by previous SWTD guest Fiona Spargo-Mabbs. Their discussion covered all aspects of how to talk with your family about drugs - what age should discussions happen? How do teens want these conversations to happen? How honest should parents be about their experience, or lack of it, with drugs? Fiona Spargo-Mabbs is the founder of the DSM Foundation, and has recently published a fantastic and powerful book called I Wish I'd Known, about her son Dan's death afte ..read more

There have been many reports about drink spiking in recent weeks and months. Suzi is joined by Dr Lata Gautam from Anglia Ruskin University to talk about what we mean by drink spiking, what substances are thought to be used, and what a person might experience if their drink is spiked. Lata also describes some of her work exploring what people understand about spiking, and what can be done to try and prevent it from occurring. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-58994755 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqLAAtWw3TQ https://theconversation.com/drink-spiking-why-so-little-is-still-known-about-thi ..read more

Say Why to Drugs is back, as Suzi emerges bleary eyed from the first year of being a mum, what better time to talk about alcohol use and motherhood? Well, it's even better than that as it's Baby Week AND alcohol awareness week from 15th November. Suzi is joined by Abi Rose and Leila Goodman to talk about alcohol use in mums, the evidence and our own experiences. Why it might be appealing, what the risks are, why it's hard to do research in this area. As mentioned in the podcast, on 18th Abi is running an interactive workshop, and you can sign up for it here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/why ..read more

A live episode recorded earlier in the year in London at Vault Festival, in association with Child.org. Suzi speaks to Alex Aldridge. Alex is a Phd student at Royal Holloway, researching sex, drugs and sexual ethics. The conversation touches on various aspects around drug use during or around sex, including chemsex, issues of consent, and in particular around how women use drugs with sex, an often overlooked area of research. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information ..read more

In this episode Suzi talks to James Nicholls, the CEO of an organisation called Transform, who are a think-tank working in drug policy reform. The conversation covers what is meant by various different types of drug policy, from regulation to decriminalisation to legalisation, as well as discussing what evidence-based drug policy might look like, both in terms of cannabis and stimulants, both of which have been the subject of publications by Transform. This is a new topic for Say Why to Drugs to cover, so if you have thoughts or questions please get in touch! See acast.com/privacy for privacy ..read more

We're back (briefly)!! In the first episode of a new little run, Suzi speaks to epidemiologists Dr Kate Fleming and Dr Luisa Zuccolo about what we know about the evidence around the risks of drinking alcohol during pregnancy. How do they compare to other things women are advised against doing, like smoking, or eating soft cheese? Why does alcohol seem to be so divisive an issue in pregnancy? We also talk about plans to keep better records about alcohol use in pregnancy, and how this got somewhat misreported in the media in recent weeks. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information ..read more

In this episode Suzi speaks to the Secret Drug Addict - a twitter and instagram user who VICE called 'twitter's most helpful anonymous account'. SDA is incredibly open in this conversation, talking about when he first started using drugs, how they impacted on his life, relationships and work, and what led him to seek help. He also talks about his work with footballer Neville Southall, promoting good causes and charities on twitter, and his own Secret Drug Addict account on twitter and instagram. A few trigger warnings for this episode, the conversation as you might imagine covers drug use an ..read more

In this episode Dr Suzi Gage is joined by Fiona Spargo-Mabbs and Sarah Birkett from the DSM Foundation. Fiona and her husband set up the foundation after their son Dan died after taking MDMA. Fiona talks a bit about this, but you can read more on the DSM Foundation's website here http://dsmfoundation.org.uk/dans-story/. Within this episode, Suzi chats with Fiona and Sarah about the foundation and the work that it does, as well as the evidence around what works, and what doesn't, in terms of drug education. The foundation's work includes providing material and training to schools, working dire ..read more

This episode was recorded live at the Say Why to Drugs book launch at Foyles bookshop, in Bristol, on 24th January 2020. Suzi is in conversation with James Nicholls, the CEO of Transform. Some links: My website (for news and events info): https://suzigage.co.uk/events-and-talks/ Amazon link to buy the book (other bookshops are available): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Say-Why-Drugs-Everything-About/dp/1473686229 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information ..read more

Happy book-day to me! Happy book-day to me! Happy birthday to Say Why To Drugs the booook, Happy book-day to me! Luckily for you I decided against singing that in the intro to this episode, but I'm VERY excited to say that today is the day that Say Why to Drugs the book launches in the UK, and online. It's taken me the last 2 years to write, and so it's such a weird and lovely feeling for it to be finally available for you to read. Or to listen to! I've recorded the audiobook, which is also released today, and the lovely people at Hodder and Stoughton have said I can share a few excerpts wit ..read more