David Caldicott

Dr. David Caldicott is a research fellow of the Emergency & Trauma Department of the Royal Adelaide Hospital in Adelaide, South Australia. He is the convenor of the OzTox Collaboration, an independent multidisciplinary, hospital-based research group committed to a harm minimisation approach to illicit drug use. He has been an outspoken critic of politicians supporting 'zero-tolerance' and prohibitionist drugs policy, questioning the evidence of their efficacy in preventing morbidity and mortality from illicit substances. He believes that drugs policy should not be guided by moral values, but by interventions known to have an effect on users behaviour. He has advocated a pill testing program in South Australia, as recommended by the 2002 Drugs Summit, but has yet to be granted a license by State Government.

Dr Caldicott is one of the founding members of The List, a politically independent group of experts committed to maintaining the truth on illicit drug debate in the Australian media. The List has promised to monitor the media on drugs policy issues in the run up into the Australian federal general election in 2007.

Dr. Caldicott is one of the designers and co-authors of the Designer Drug Early Warning System, and was the Project manager for the TRAUMATOX Project. Both of these studies are some of the largest of their kind ever conducted in Australia.

In addition to having a research interest in the acute health effects of illicit drugs, he is also co-author of the Bombs, Blasts and Bullets course, a primer for first responders approaching mass casualty incidents of terrorist origin.