Professor Alex Stevens:

There are two particularly vulnerable populations at which we want to target drug checking services. One is people involved in drug use in the night-time economy, for example, night clubs and festivals. The other is people who are involved in dependent drug use, particularly opiates. The first group can be effectively reached by providing drug checking services at festivals and in city centres. That is something the Loop charity has been doing in the UK. It has been done for decades in the Netherlands in nightclubs and at locations in city centres where people can go and have their drugs checked. Because of the increased potency of MDMA and the very concerning possibility of adulteration of party drugs by dangerous substances, including xylazine, we need to provide this population with the information it needs to keep itself safe. The other population I am interested in consists of people who are dependent on opioids. A really good setting in which to provide drug checking for those people is overdose prevention centres, otherwise known as drug consumption rooms. We have not yet mentioned them as a mechanism for harm reduction. It is an important setting for people in those areas like Dublin with high concentrations of injection drug use. I know there are plans to open one. There have long been plans to open one in Dublin. In places like Switzerland, drug checking is provided in overdose prevention centres. In particular, since the entry of the market of fentanyl and metazene, it is extremely important that people who are considering using opioids get information about what else might in those opioids because it could easily kill them.