Organisers

Andrew is a Public Health Practitioner. He has been involved in nightlife related issues for many years participating in local nightlife strategic planning; implementing communication campaigns using social marketing approaches; providing training and conducting research. His current work includes trauma informed approaches in drug services, sport and schools and other young people settings.

A former youth worker and drug worker and manager, Andrew established one of the first syringe exchange programmes in the mid-1980s in the UK. He was the Managing Director at HIT, a national agency providing a range of drugs and other public health interventions, from 1994 to 2006. During this time HIT became an internationally respected advocate and provider of consumer-based harm reduction approaches to drug and other health-related behaviours.

Andrew spoke at the first Club Health conference and has attended many more. Along with host city colleagues, Andrew has organised recent Club Health conferences in Prague, San Francisco, Lisbon, Dublin and Amsterdam.

I obtained my Bachelor's degree in Social Sciences: Addiction, Criminology and Mental Health from the University of Montreal in 2000, followed by a Masters Degree in Criminology in 2005. I presently teach the degree course on Drugs and Crime at University of Montreal. With experience at everything from creating tools and training outreach teams, to coordinating them on the field, I’ve been involved for over two decades in nightlife harm reduction, and have led hundreds of intervention teams at all kinds of major events, including Éclipse, Bal en Blanc, Black and Blue, Shazamfest, Osheaga and Île Soniq. For the past 4 years, I’ve been part of the ANKORS team which analyzes substances at the Shambhala festival. In partnership with Chlöe Sage and Jarred Aäsen, I have created a training guide and workshops on harm reduction, drugs and messaging for the drug checking community that is scheduled to be published in 2021, reflecting my firm conviction that prevention and harm reduction is essential for people to develop critical thinking skills, and make informed decisions about their substance use. My current research projects are concerned with gender issues, social justice, new drug trends, drug policy, drug checking and nightlife harm reduction. As the content and practice development manager at the AIDQ, I’m also involved in nightlife harm reduction with Grip in Quebec and have been nominated to be part of the Night Council of Montreal, which will reflect on the security, health, inclusion and diversity in Montreal nightlife.