Thursday, October 8, 2026

11:15 AM - 12:15 PM

Nadir

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Details

The chair will first provide a brief overview of drug checking and will introduce the broad areas of topics that speakers will address. Each speaker will introduce their drug checking programme in 5 minute talks that cover the diversity of technologies, legality within their jurisdiction, programme design, purposes, and methods. Our panel reflects a diversity of approaches to drug checking practiced on three continents, and includes people involved in all aspects of drug checking such as peer education, programme planning, chemistry, data analysis, and dissemination. In this session, we aim for attendees to learn about: 1) the benefits and challenges associated with various in the moment drug checking technologies used on-site, including FTIR spectroscopy, fluoroscopy, portable spectrometers, immunoassay test strips, and reagents. 2) strategies to learn about the illicit drug supply in settings where drug use and possession are criminalised (and remaining challenges even in environments with more decriminalisation), and how various drug checking program navigate their relationships with law enforcement. 3) approaches to cultivate expertise of people with lived and living experience of drug use in programme development and implementation. 4) public health and clinical insights from drug checking programs around the world. 5) funding and leadership models. Speakers and topics include: Chelsea Shover-Darling, Morgan Godvin, Amanda Cowan: Drug Checking Los Angeles is an academic-community partnership that operates weekly at five syringe services programmes in California, including targeted quantitative sampling in response to drug supply concerns. The programme, which uses immunoassay strips and FTIR for immediate on-site results and off-site laboratory methods, builds capacity for people with lived experience of drug use to deliver the services. Pieter Oomen: One of the world’s oldest drug checking programmes (founded in 1992), Drugs Information and Monitoring System (DIMS) operates 34 sites across the Netherlands that use on-site methods (e.g., reagent kits, portable spectrometer) for immediate results and off-site laboratory methods. DIMS serves as a toxicoepidemiologic monitor for public health and can provide information about purity of certain drugs. Katri Abel-Ollo: Residue-testing efforts in Estonia utilise discarded paraphernalia and used test strips in a setting where testing of drug products is not legal. Estonia has a mature illicit fentanyl market with more recent emergence of nitazenes and other highly potent synthetic opioids. Lydia Plant, Christopher Pudney: Pilot drug checking program in Bristol, U.K. operates a monthly service at Bristol Drugs Project in a partnership with the Loop. This service uses traditional technology including portable spectrometer, immunoassay test strips, and reagents, as well as novel technologies developed by Prof. Pudney (University of Bath). These innovations include field-based portable fluoroscopy to detect specific opioids, benzodiazepines, and synthetic cannabinoids.

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Speaker