In episode 114 of The Just Checking In Podcast, we checked in with Dr Karenza Moore.
Karenza is a Lecturer in Sociology of Crime at Newcastle University and the Founder of Club Research.
Club Research is the home of Karenza’s academic research on the use of alcohol, illegal drugs, novel psychoactive substances (NPS), drug policy, the night-time economy (NTE) and dance music club cultures and drug research methods and ethics.
Karenza has been researching and writing about drugs for 18 years. Her research explores the prevalence, use patterns, emerging drug trends, meanings, motivations and consequences of drug use, especially polydrug use and drug use in recreational settings, including illegal raves, clubs, festivals and after-parties.
In this episode we discuss Karenza’s academic journey, Club Research, the importance of clubs as cultural institutions, the relationship between psychedelics and mental health, a discussion about the medicinal benefits of drugs like MDMA and LSD vs the harms and how we break down the stigma behind not going out.
We also talk about the eating disorder Karenza lived with between the ages of 15-30 years old, how she overcame it and how raving and clubbing massively helped her recovery.
The final part of our conversation concerns the issues she’s had with Benzodiazepine and the collective trauma we are all trying to overcome brought about by Covid-19.
As always, #itsokaytovent
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Find out more about Club Research here.
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