Drug checking interventions can track the nature and size of the discrepancy between self‐report and actual drugs consumed

Drug testing, accuracy and harm reduction: a response to Barratt & Ezard

“…As Barratt & Ezard point out [1], we found substantial discrepancies between self-reported drug use and the results from the oral swabs [2]. Nevertheless, we are more confident in these findings than studies which rely simply on self-report, including our own [3].…”

“…Drug-related death is a major risk following release from prison [1]. Bird & Hutchinson were among the first to highlight the risk of post-release mortality and the importance of addressing this particular risk [2].…”

The detection and prevention of unintentional consumption of DOx and 25x‐NBOMe at Portugal's Boom Festival

“…As shown in the above review of LSD misrepresentation, drug‐checking services provide information useful for drug market monitoring. This information is unique because such services can access a different and arguable wider range of drug samples to those accessed through police seizures (Camilleri & Caldicott, ), and they provide information about the nature and size of the discrepancy between alleged and actual chemical content of drugs (Barratt & Ezard, ). In the last decade, with the increased availability of new psychoactive substances (European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, ), the provision of mechanisms to screen and identify these substances is of utmost importance.…”

City checking: Piloting the UK's first community‐based drug safety testing (drug checking) service in 2 city centres

“…Therefore, if testing services share results and other relevant information directly with service users, and potentially also other interested parties such as wider drug using communities and support services, they can communicate the risks associated with consuming that substance and enhance users' ability to make educated and informed decisions to reduce or avert future harm, protect their health and reduce the burden on health services. For stakeholders and support services, testing provides an opportunity to monitor trends in illegal drug markets and associated harms, and for alerts to be issued that are timely and accurately targeted to the appropriate drug using communities by utilising information that links composition of individual samples with what they were sold as, a distinct added value of drug safety testing . A global audit identified 31 such drug safety testing programmes operated by 29 organisations in 20 countries at that time, with the largest and longest standing being the Dutch Drugs Information Monitoring System, and more services have started operating since that audit.…”