Rhys Ponton

Dr Rhys Ponton is an experienced pharmacist with over two decades of work in a number of fields including clinical pharmacy, pharmaceutical teaching and research.

After qualifying as a pharmacist, he moved into work in the field of alcohol and substance use disorder at the Maudsley hospital in London where he first became involved in research.

His PhD, undertaken at the University of Bath in the UK, was entitled ‘Evidence-based harm reduction’ and examined the risks posed by injections prepared from heroin and crack-cocaine. This project involved learning injection preparation techniques from needle exchange service users, then investigating the risk potential of prepared injections under laboratory conditions.

Rhys joined the School of Pharmacy, the University of Auckland in May 2016. Here he continues to research drug misuse, including the area of his primary interest: how people prepare recreational drugs for consumption. The New Zealand drug market is unique on the world stage, and the ways in which people use drugs equally so; bringing his skills to this country, he has examined the injection of the drugs available including morphine, methadone and methamphetamine. Continuing the theme of drug misuse, he has also conducted research on naloxone for opioid overdose reversal supply in New Zealand, the sale and use of e-cigarettes and the inappropriate prescribing of prescription drugs leading to misuse.

Rhys is also a pharmacist prescriber (UK) and is the course director for the postgraduate certificate in pharmacist prescribing. He is passionate about the future development of pharmacists and the pharmacy profession. He is the School of Pharmacy member of the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences Faculty Healthcare Career Pathways project, which is a longitudinal study of all graduates from the Faculty. This project is used to understand trends in factors such as future pharmacy career setting choice and career aspirations.

For more information on Rhys’s research and publications click HERE

For contact details click HERE