drug checking

Music Festival Attendees Embrace DIY Drug Checking Despite Barriers

As temperatures rise and music festival season kicks into gear across the United States, hundreds of thousands of people will…

May 22, 2025

Props for Public Drug-Checking, From Someone Who Sold MDMA in the ’90s

In 1997 I went off to college, at an East Coast Jesuit school where everyone was really into athletics. The…

May 15, 2025

Test Strips Do Tell You If Xylazine Is Present, But Prone to False Positives

Xylazine has emerged as a major adulterant in the unregulated drug supply in recent years. Initially common in certain cities…

May 1, 2025

Festival Drug Checking Services Still Too Often Sidelined

It’s a scorching July day in British Columbia, at Bass Coast festival, and there is no line outside the drug…

September 5, 2024

Protonitazepyne and Medetomidine? More Unfamiliar Drugs in Our Supply

North America’s unregulated drug supply has grown ever more unpredictable, which often means deadly. Since the arrival of fentanyl, the…

April 9, 2024

Vermont Has Multiple New Drug Decriminalization Bills

Vermont lawmakers have introduced four major drug policy reform proposals in March. Two of the bills would decriminalize simple possession…

March 14, 2023

Queensland, Australia, to Provide Free Drug-Checking Services

The state of Queensland, Australia, has announced that it will begin providing free drug-checking services. People will be able to…

February 28, 2023

Ohio Bills Seek to Decriminalize Fentanyl Test Strips

Ohio lawmakers are—slowly—considering legislation to decriminalize fentanyl test strips. On May 19, state Representative Kristin Boggs (D) testified before the…

May 24, 2022

The US Gets Its First Free, Rapid Drug-Checking Mail Program

Traditionally, the conversation around US safe supply consists of saying that we don’t have one and then pointing to Canada.…

March 21, 2022

Give Fentanyl Test Strips to People Who Could Benefit Most

Go slow. Don’t use alone. Always have naloxone. This is the advice we’re supposed to give people when their dope…

March 15, 2022