What is needed for implementing drug checking services in the context of the overdose crisis?

Ever wonder how drug checking fits into the overall scope of the overdose crisis? Curious what people think about drug checking? Check out this journal article written by our project leads and community partners to explore drug checking considerations from the perspective of potential service users. This study interviewed 27 prospective service users to find out how they envision implementing drug checking services in the context of the current public health crisis.

Our drug checking project is built on our collaboration with community partners and people who use drugs, so a natural step was to go to the source to find out how drug checking services can be most useful to those who would be accessing them.

This study continues to inform our current service model which aims to maintain the bottom up, grassroots history of community drug checking while ensuring that we remain responsive to ongoing challenges in harm reduction.

Check out the abstract below and access the open-source paper here.

"The current illicit drug overdose crisis within North America and other countries requires expanded and new responses to address unpredictable and potentially lethal substances, including fentanyl analogues, in the unregulated drug market. Community-wide drug checking is being increasingly explored as one such public health response. We explored how drug checking could be implemented as a potential harm reduction response to the overdose crisis, from the perspective of potential service users."