Drug Checking

What is drug checking? 

Your drugs can contain something you may not know (e.g., cutting agents or strong and potentially fatal opioids like carfentanil) that can put you at a greater risk for overdose.

Drug checking is a method of harm reduction that allows users to check what is contained in their drugs. Drug checking can help detect a range of substances and reduce the risk of overdose by providing information on what your drug is made of.     

What drug testing can determine:  Drug testing can identify substances and cutting agents in your drugs and estimates the percentage of substances in your drugs. Drug checking can also identify fentanyl, benzodiazepines, and their analogues within your drugs.   

What drug testing cannot determine: Drug testing cannot detect substances that are present in small amounts or the exact percentages of what is contained in your drugs. Drug testing cannot determine if your whole drug is free of contaminants as only a small sample is tested. This may be due to uneven mixes in your drug sample.    

“What’s in my drugs?”