It's Global Drug Checking Day today! So we've got Lachlan Akers, Regional Co-Manager for KnowYourStuffNZ to answer some common questions about drug checking services in Aotearoa.
Q. What do you mean by drug checking? Isn't drug checking what my employer 'randomly' does the week after 4/20 to all the staff they don't like?
A. No. That's drug testing; a morally questionable action which causes division between employees and employers without actually improving workplace safety.
Drug checking is a public health initiative where you can bring any drugs that you might possess, in order to have them scientifically analysed and find out what actually makes up your sample. This is done with the use of a spectrometer, and with reagent tests (chemicals which change colour depending on what your sample is, as well as benzo and fentanyl test strips.)
We don't test people. We test drugs.
Q. Any drugs? Like I can bring you my pingaz to find out what's actually in them? Is that legal?
A. Yes, our service is free, legal and confidential. Most of the drugs we check are your common black market drugs, though we can test some pharmaceuticals too.
We can't test for the purity of a substance, just for the presence of a substance or multiple substances in the sample. The machine we use to check most drugs allows us to see components that are greater than 10% of the sample. This means there could be small amounts of other substances in your sample that the spectrometer can't see. This can be a risk, with highly potent drugs potentially contaminating desired drugs. This is an unfortunate reality of the service, it's not perfect, but it's still a hell of a lot better than not checking your drugs at all.
Q. Do I get my drugs back afterwards?
A. We use a tiny amount - approximately the size of a match head that gets destroyed during the testing process. Any drugs we receive that are not destroyed in the testing process get returned to you. This happens alongside a short chat about the results we've found with an expert volunteer, who can help you reduce any risks, and unwanted effects, if you do decide to use the substance.
Q. What about the cops?
A. As Ice Cube once said...
Jokes.
Police are legally not allowed to interfere with our services or our clients. They keep clear of our clinics, as we're providing an important, legal, health service that significantly reduces harms, and their presence reduces our ability to carry out these services. Most police officers understand this and don't hang around our clinics. Occasionally we'll have to remind an officer or two that they're overstepping their boundaries, but generally the police should be of no concern to our clients during the drug checking process. They can not use your presence at our clinics as evidence in legal proceedings, they can not access the data about your specific sample, and we don't collect any names or personal data about any of our clients. The only data we collect is anonymous, aggregate data about the samples we've checked, for public health reasons.
Q. Where can I access the service?
A. We'll be in a marquee at Baseline Festival tomorrow for those attending!!
We're also currently hosting clinics at the OUSA clubs and societies building once a month, and a clinic at Synergy Wellness in Kaikorai Valley once a month as well, alongside having teams in all the main centres of the country running their own clinics too.
You can see the dates for our clinics, as well as any hosted by the NZ Drug Foundation, and the NZ Needle Exchange Program at the link here:
https://knowyourstuff.nz/events-2/
Remember to always buy your drugs in advance, so you can check it, before you neck it.
Look after yourselves, you only get one life, so if you're going to do something, anything, do it in a way that reduces the risk of causing serious harms.