Drug checking is a free and legal process that helps people find out what’s really in their drugs, so they can make informed decisions about if, when and how they take those drugs.
2022 was our first full year as a licensed drug checking provider. We ran 73 clinics and checked 1720 samples. That’s a whole lot of harm reduction!
We work alongside two other brilliant organisations that provide public drug checking – KnowYourStuffNZ, who pioneered the service, and the New Zealand Needle Exchange. Our thanks goes to these organisations for their work and support across the year. Science lab ESR provides invaluable confirmatory testing and extra scientific services.
Here's what we found.
MDMA was the most common drug people thought they had when they brought it in for checking - making up 59% of the total.
The other most common presumed drugs were amphetamines at 5% (methamphetamine 4%, other amphetamines 1%), cocaine at 5%, ketamine at 4%, LSD at 4% and cannabis at 4%.
One of the questions we ask people is how they might use their drug if they choose to take it.
Most people (61%) said they would swallow it - either by itself, in a capsule, in a drink or parachuting (wrapping the substance in something like rice paper and swallowing it).
19% said they would snort the drug. 5% would smoke or vape, 5% did not answer, 4% would take sublingually (under the tongue), 3% would inject, 2.5% were unsure and 0.5% would take transdermally (on the skin, for substances that can be absorbed this way).
Remember, most of our samples were of MDMA - which affects the overall stats on how people are taking drugs.
Every client who accesses our service has a harm reduction conversation with our team. Here are the most common ways people told us they’d reduce drug harm:
(Note: most people said they’d do more than one of these).
We've loved our first full year as a drug checking provider, growing our drug checking team and getting stuck in to reducing drug harm. To everyone who brought us a sample and talked to us about how they stay safer - thank you!
Read the full report for more info, including common fillers we found and drug-specific data for MDMA, methamphetamine and amphetamine, ketamine, cocaine and LSD.
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