Drug Checking

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The drug supply is constantly changing. The drug supply contains many potent synthetic substances including illicitly manufactured fentanyl and fentanyl analogues (chemically similar compounds), which are involved in a large number of overdoses each year.  Lack of supply regulation means people who use drugs are often unaware of exactly what is in their drugs as contamination, inaccurate labeling, and impurities are common.  

People who use drugs are highly interested in using drug checking services. Many people already use immunoassay test strips and reagent kits to detect fentanyl, xylazine, and other substances before consuming drugs. Although these tests are inexpensive, widely available, and easy to use, they cannot detect all potentially dangerous or unwanted substances. To address this limitation, community organizations, health departments, universities, and laboratories are increasingly offering more advanced drug checking methods, such as spectroscopy and spectrometry, to analyze local drug supplies. However, a major gap in the field remains the lack of standardized data and systematic evaluation of drug checking implementation, best practices, and public health impact.

This study aims to address this gap by:

• Conducting a survey of drug checking services that will provide valuable information on the reach, adoption, implementation and maintenance of drug checking services; 
• Exploring whether a point-of-care drug checking service is feasible in Rhode Island by conducting formative virtual focus groups with drug checking technicians; and
• Developing a pilot drug checking service in Rhode Island to assess its impact by collecting and testing local drug samples using  Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), and offsite laboratory testing. 

Study Status

Data Collection: Active

Data Analysis and Publications: In progress

This project is supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the NIH under grant number P20GM125507. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.