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Background
As drug checking becomes more integrated within public health responses to the overdose crisis, and potentially more institutionalized, there is value in critically questioning the impacts of drug checking as a harm reduction response.
Methods
As part of a pilot project to implement community drug checking in Victoria, BC, Canada, in-de...
Context in source publication
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Citations
... Communications that offer specific, actionable descriptions and insights about known substances of concern (and/or reported harms) can facilitate rapid dissemination of relevant education, prevention, and advice to promote awareness of perceived threats and widespread information exchange to help reduce the impact of adverse events [17,49]. However, in the current context of prohibition, criminalisation, and stigmatisation of people who use drugs, widescale public health initiatives have historically been overshadowed by the prioritisation of law enforcement approaches, resulting in reactive rather than preventative resource allocation for proactive health and harm reduction interventions [1,52]. ...
... Evaluating the broader social and public health outcomes of public health harm reduction interventions is a complex endeavour that requires sophisticated coordination of multiple indicators at micro-, meso-, and macro-levels [76,98]. Outcomes will depend on a range of factors that also impact engagement with these systems like the overarching legal, social, and political setting, context of substance/s used, accessibility and practicality of advice offered, and the priorities, motivations, and lived experiences of people who use drugs [45,52,99]. ...
... Although the scope of this project was to design alerts for healthcare and community service professionals, a recurrent discussion at all co-design and feedback sessions was that people who use drugs are the ultimate alert 'end users' . The diversity of this population's needs and preferences was strongly emphasised by participants, and our findings support claims that public health and harm reduction interventions should be informed by participatory, formative evaluations to meet the needs of all affected stakeholders [52,85,89,90,103]. ...
Background
Alerts about changes in unregulated drug markets may be useful for supporting health and community workers to anticipate, prevent, and respond to unexpected adverse drug events. This study aimed to establish factors influencing the successful design and implementation of drug alerts for use in clinical and community service settings in Victoria, Australia.
Methods
An iterative mixed methods design was used to co-produce drug alert prototypes with practitioners and managers working across various alcohol and other drug services and emergency medicine settings. A quantitative needs-analysis survey (n = 184) informed five qualitative co-design workshops (n = 31). Alert prototypes were drafted based on findings and tested for utility and acceptability. Applicable constructs from the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research helped to conceptualise factors that impact successful alert system design.
Results
Timely and reliable alerts about unexpected drug market changes were important to nearly all workers (98%) yet many reported insufficient access to this kind of information (64%). Workers considered themselves ‘conduits’ for information-sharing and valued alerts for increasing exposure to drug market intelligence; facilitating communication about potential threats and trends; and improving capacity for effective responding to drug-related harm. Alerts should be ‘shareable’ across a range of clinical and community settings and audiences. To maximise engagement and impact, alerts must command attention, be easily recognisable, be available on multiple platforms (electronic and printable formats) in varying levels of detail, and be disseminated via appropriate notification mechanisms to meet the needs of diverse stakeholder groups. Three drug alert prototypes (SMS prompt, summary flyer, and a detailed poster) were endorsed by workers as useful for supporting their work responding to unexpected drug-related harms.
Discussion
Alerts informed by coordinated early warning networks that offer close to real-time detection of unexpected substances can provide rapid, evidence-based drug market intelligence to inform preventive and responsive action to drug-related harm. The success of alert systems requires adequate planning and resourcing to support design, implementation, and evaluation, which includes consultation with all relevant audiences to understand how to maximise engagement with information, recommendations, and advice. Our findings about factors impacting successful alert design have utility to inform the development of local early warning systems.
... The peer-reviewed research evidence related to drug checking is limited and primarily based on the long-standing history of drug checking within electronic dance and festival settings Ivers et al., 2021 ;McCrae et al., 2019 ;Measham, 2020 ;Measham & Turnbull, 2021 ;Measham, 2019 ;Mema et al., 2018 ;Murphy et al., 2021 ;Palamar et al., 2021 ;Sande & Š abi ć, 2018 ;Valente et al., 2019 ) and more recently, in light of the opioid crisis, people who use opioids ( Dolan et al., 2021 ;Glick et al., 2019 ;Karamouzian et al., 2018 ;Laing et al., 2018 ;Mema et al., 2018 ;Palamar et al., 2020 ;Ti et al., 2020 ;Tupper et al., 2018 ;Wallace et al., 2021 ;Wallace et al., 2020 ). More peer-reviewed research is needed with a focus on the general population and the overall effectiveness of this harm reduction intervention. ...
Background: Drug checking services (DCS) are harm reduction interventions for people who consume illicit substances. Unregulated drug markets lead to samples with unexpected and variable contents. A retrospective data analysis of Zurich's DCS was performed to determine the nature of these samples.
Methods: This study aims to investigate the qualitative and quantitative properties of 16,815 customer-provided psychoactive drug samples analyzed chemically through the DCS in Zurich from 1 st January 2011 to 31 st Decem-ber 2021. The main analytical method utilized for characterizing these substances was high-performance liquid chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Data sets are summarized using descriptive statistics.
Results: There was a 2.5-fold increase in the number of tested samples over the past decade. An overall proportion of 57.9% (weighted mean) of samples within our database demonstrates unexpected analytical findings and additional low sample contents during the observation period. Substantial differences in quality and quantity between substance groups were detected and an increase of sample quality and content over time was demonstrated.
Conclusions: Chemical analysis reveals that over half of substances acquired from unregulated drug markets analyzed through DCS in Zurich are with low qualitative and quantitative properties, which may expose users to risks. Based on longitudinal analyses over a decade, this study contributes to the body of evidence that DCS may potentially manipulate unregulated drug markets towards providing better quality substances, as well as may stabilize these markets over time. The necessity for drug policy changes to make this service accessible in further settings was highlighted, as DCS still often take place in legal grey zones. Funding: None to declare.
... While drug checking does not provide an alternative to the unregulated market, it is among the innovations being promoted in recognition of the limits of current safer supply initiatives and decriminalization to intervene in the unregulated market [11,12,45]. While drug checking has the potential to improve quality and safety within this context [11,12,51], it is currently located primarily within harm reduction services such as supervised consumption sites where reach is limited. Thus, strategies are needed to increase scale and reach to support drug checking as a population level intervention. ...
... We conducted a qualitative study as part of a community-based research project that operates drug checking services within an urban city, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada [48,51,52]. The province of British Columbia is considered the epicentre of the overdose crisis in Canada, with overdose fatalities exceeding 43 deaths per 100,000 individuals [2]. ...
... Drug checking's mandate and messaging should also reflect universal principles of a right to know and quality control, rather than solely detecting and reporting risks and harms [9,51]. An exclusive focus on the risks of substances and mitigating harms in drug checking messaging feeds into stigmatization and is less accepting of substance use that is not as inherently harmful. ...
Background
Illicit drug overdoses have reached unprecedented levels, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Responses are needed that address the increasingly potent and unpredictable drug supply with better reach to a wide population at risk for overdose. Drug checking is a potential response offered mainly within existing harm reduction services, but strategies are needed to increase reach and improve equitable delivery of drug checking services.
Methods
The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how to extend the reach of drug checking services to a wide population at risk of overdose. We conducted 26 in-depth interviews with potential service users to identify barriers to service use and strategies to increase equitable delivery of drug checking services. Our analysis was informed by theoretical perspectives on equity, and themes were developed relevant to equitable delivery through attention to quality dimensions of service use: accessibility, appropriateness, effectiveness, safety, and respect.
Results
Barriers to equitable service delivery included criminalization and stigma, geographic and access issues, and lack of cultural appropriateness that deter service use for a broad population with diverse needs. Strategies to enhance equitable access include 1ocating services widely throughout communities, integrating drug checking within existing health care services, reframing away from risk messaging, engaging peers from a broad range of backgrounds, and using discrete methods of delivery to help create safer spaces and better reach diverse populations at risk for overdose.
Conclusions
We propose proportionate universalism in drug checking as a guiding framework for the implementation of community drug checking as an equity-oriented harm reduction intervention and as a population health response. Both a universal equity-oriented approach and multiple tailored approaches are required to facilitate drug checking services that maximize reach and appropriateness to respond to diverse needs.
... In Victoria, British Columbia, community drug checking sites have been implemented as a public health response to the ongoing overdose crisis and the unregulated illicit drug market through a community-based research project called the Vancouver Island Drug Checking Project [6]. In addition to providing anonymous, confidential, and non-judgmental drug checking services with rapid results, the project has conducted qualitative research aimed to better understand drug checking as a potential harm reduction response to the illicit drug overdose crisis and the unregulated illicit drug market [7,8]. The goal of the research was to hear about people's experiences with drug checking, including people who use drugs, their family, friends, peers, and/or people who make or distribute drugs [7,8]. ...
... In addition to providing anonymous, confidential, and non-judgmental drug checking services with rapid results, the project has conducted qualitative research aimed to better understand drug checking as a potential harm reduction response to the illicit drug overdose crisis and the unregulated illicit drug market [7,8]. The goal of the research was to hear about people's experiences with drug checking, including people who use drugs, their family, friends, peers, and/or people who make or distribute drugs [7,8]. The central intention of the interviews was to gain a well-informed understanding of how people think about drug checking from a range of social locations, with the goal of making Substance use stigma prevents people from engaging in harm reduction practices [8,9,22]. ...
... A secondary analysis of qualitative interviews was conducted to explore in depth how stigma was being experienced and could be operating as a barrier within drug checking services, and potential strategies that could address this. We conducted this research with a critical harm reduction and social justice approach that seeks to transcend neoliberal perspectives of harm reduction [7,[35][36][37], and developed a multilevel analytic framework to guide this research that combines critical perspectives on stigma and how they can operate and intersect specific to a drug checking context [9,[18][19][20][21]23]. We used this resulting Substance Use Stigma Framework to better understand the experiences of SUS within drug checking services and potential ways to navigate resulting tensions. ...
Background:
Community drug checking is an emerging response to the overdose crisis. However, stigma has been identified as a potential barrier to service use that requires investigation.
Methods:
A qualitative study explored how best to implement drug checking services to the wider population including those at risk of overdose. A secondary analysis of 26 interviews with potential service users examine how stigma may be a barrier to service use and strategies to address this. A Substance Use Stigma Framework was developed to guide analysis.
Results:
Drug checking is operating in a context of structural stigma produced by criminalization. People fear criminal repercussions, anticipate stigma when accessing services, and internalize stigma resulting in shame and avoidance of services. A perceived hierarchy of substance use creates stigma results in stigma between service users and avoidance of sites associated with certain drugs. Participants frequently recommended drug checking to be located in more public spaces that still maintain privacy.
Conclusions:
Criminalization and societal views on substance use can deter service use. Strategies to mitigate stigma include employment of people with lived and living experience from diverse backgrounds; public yet private locations that preserve anonymity; and normalization of drug checking while decriminalization could address the root causes of stigma.
... Drug checking is a harm reduction intervention enabling people who use drugs (PWUD) to submit a sample of drugs for analysis. The primary aim of drug checking services (DCS) is to reduce the risk of harms to PWUD, including drug-related deaths, with potential for the associated reduction of harm to families, communities, and wider society [1]. To achieve this, DCS provide information about the composition of a tested sample to the individual who submitted it, coupled with harm reduction information and education [2]. ...
... 1), and variations in support between regional governments [7]. Conversely, across Canada, DCS have both the support of the federal and provincial governments, as well as explicit support from high-ranking police officials in some jurisdictions [1,58,64]. Within an enabling policy and political environment, this reportedly allows for more autonomy for local police divisions [38,58,59] and better understanding and acceptance of how DCS can work within existing police roles and responsibilities [42,60,68]. Within such enabling contexts, local police officers have been described as feeling more protected in their decisions to interpret the law through the lens of public health [52,59,68]. ...
... If the DCS operates in the contexts mentioned, PWUD may perceive the service to be more inclusive and responsive [1]. This mechanism has also been described as a sense of ownership around a service [89]. ...
With rising numbers of drug-related deaths in the UK and globally, exploration of interventions that seek to reduce drug-related harm is essential. Drug checking services (DCS) allow people to submit drug samples for chemical analysis and receive feedback about the sample, as well as harm reduction advice. The use of DCS is often linked to festival and/or nightlife settings and to so-called ‘recreational’ drug use, but research has also shown the potential of community-based DCS as an intervention serving more varied demographics of people who use drugs, including more marginalised individuals and those experiencing drug dependence. Whilst there is a growing evidence base on the effectiveness of drug checking as a harm reduction intervention, there is still limited evidence of the underlying mechanisms and processes within DCS which may aid implementation and subsequent engagement of people who use drugs. This presents a challenge to understanding why engagement differs across types of DCS, and how best to develop and deliver services across different contexts and for different populations. To explore the contexts and mechanisms which impact engagement in community-based DCS, a realist review was undertaken to synthesise the international evidence for the delivery and implementation of DCS. There were 133 sources included in the review. From these sources the underlying contexts, mechanisms, and outcomes relating to DCS implementation and engagement were developed and refined into seven programme theories. The findings of this review are theoretically novel and hold practical relevance for the design of DCS, with implications for optimisation, tailoring, and implementing services to reach individuals in different settings.
... 115-117). One metric for assessing the success of drug-checking is "disposals" -or, the frequency that people dispose of their drugs when results are contrary to their expectations (Measham, 2019;Wallace et al., 2021). As Wallace et al. (2021), have noted, the focus on disposal comes from a need to justify these services in political climates where abstinence is the desired outcome, and ignores the structural inequities and misalignment with the goals of PWUD. ...
... One metric for assessing the success of drug-checking is "disposals" -or, the frequency that people dispose of their drugs when results are contrary to their expectations (Measham, 2019;Wallace et al., 2021). As Wallace et al. (2021), have noted, the focus on disposal comes from a need to justify these services in political climates where abstinence is the desired outcome, and ignores the structural inequities and misalignment with the goals of PWUD. Whereas other research exploring drug-checking has examined behaviour change from drug-checking (Measham, 2019;Goldman et al., 2019;Karamouzian et al., 2018), efficacy of different tools (Bardwell et al., 2019;Peiper et al., 2018), its potential impacts on the drug market (Betsos et al., 2021), or how knowledge is made for/with the end-user (Carroll, 2021;Tissot, 2017), we aim to attend to the multiple knowledges constructed by and with drug-checking. ...
... Curiosity is part of the "logic of care" (Duff, 2015, p. 94), and provides a possibility to think through the care and responsibility one has to oneself and to others. Our findings align with work by Wallace et al. (2021) that found that greater knowledge of one's drugs was seen as an imperative by service users. The "need to know" what is in one's drugs, and curiosity broadly remain underexplored tools for enacting harm reduction. ...
Drug-checking is an ensemble of different harm reduction techniques providing people the ability to test illegally purchased drugs for strength, the presence of particular substances, and possible adulterants. Drug-checking research has primarily focused on nightlife and festival communities of people who use drugs and has overlooked how it functions as a knowledge forming process, particularly by people whose drug use is more stigmatized. The implementation of Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) in Vancouver, Canada's Downtown Eastside in response to the overdose crisis has made it possible for people who use drugs to receive information about the drugs that they are consuming. Using insights developed from the ‘ontological turn’ and approaches to co-production from public health and science and technology studies, we explore the multiple relations that come to produce and contest drug-checking knowledge in this setting. We look at how knowledge is produced by and for people who use drugs, including people who use drugs operating the FTIR. Using rapid ethnographic assessment and semi-structured interviews, participants were recruited from a low-barrier supervised injection facility to explore their experience of drug-checking. Data were coded in NVivo 12 using an initial coding scheme, as well as an iterative coding scheme as the data were explored. We find that the traditional demarcation between lay and expert, or peer and professional, which co-production idioms often rely on, creates barriers to seeing the different knowledge formations of drug-checking knowledge, and instead offer up a new idiom, trans-production, to explore how knowledge and harm reduction services are mutually enacted.
... The extremely high number of opioid overdoses has resulted in DCS implementation in a broader range of settings (e.g. supervised injecting centers, drop-in services, hospitals) as a first response (Karch et al. 2021;Ti et al., 2020;Wallace, Hills, et al., 2021;Wallace, van Roode, et al., 2021). ...
... Also, the people who participated in all study phases were highly motivated, interested in drug checking, and already applying several harm reduction strategies, which might result in some bias. Evaluations of drug checking in more diverse populations and other settings, including drop-in centers or supervised injection sites, are needed to fully assess the impact of drug checking as a harm reduction tool (Bardwell & Kerr, 2018;Bardwell et al., 2019;Glick et al. 2019;Sherman et al. 2019;Wallace, Hills, et al., 2021;Wallace, van Roode, et al., 2021;. ...
Drug checking services (DCS) allow people who use drugs to submit drug samples for chemical analysis
and provide feedback of results and counseling. Our study tested the validity of behavioral intention
measures against reports of actual behavior and the adoption of protective behavioral strategies. DCS
patrons at Boom Festival 2018 completed three surveys during the festival (pre-drug analysis 343
participants submitted 671 drug samples, post-drug analysis 290 participants reported on 341 drug sample
results, three-day follow-up 145 participants reported on 195 drug sample results) and another survey after
six months (n = 71). At third-day follow-up, when the results were ‘not the expected substance’ ( N = 35),
86% (n = 30) reported they ‘didn’t take the substance’; 11% (n = 4) ‘took a smaller dose than initially
Title: A longitudinal study of behavioural outcomes following a visit to ...
IST: 2022-05-03: 4:57:27 PM This track pdf was created from the KGL online application for reference purposes only. Page 1 of 24
planned’ and only 3% (n = 1) ‘took it as planned’. In 71% (n = 63) of the matched post-test and third-day
follow-up answers (N = 89), the behavior reported at third-day matched the behavioral intention reported
during post-test. After six months, there was a slight increase in most harm-reduction behaviors; however,
there was a substantial drop-out among respondents. Results support the hypothesis that DCS promote the
adoption of safer drug use practices; however, further research is needed to evaluate the medium- and longterm
effects of DCS.
Keywords: Longitudinal study; follow-up study; behavioral change; drug checking; harm reduction; drug
education and prevention; Boom Festival
... Systems that provide close to realtime detection of sample composition can differentiate from people's expectations about the substance of concern, and are better-placed to provide evidence-based insights about potentially adulterated, contaminated, or substituted supplies (37,38). Systematic, cross-jurisdictional detection and reporting that coordinates multidisciplinary responses (e.g., xed and mobile drug checking services, screening medical presentations, peerled intelligence, research activities, and wastewater analyses in substance use 'hotspots') can help to ensure more proactive and timely detection, evaluation, and reporting of emerging threat (41)(42)(43). Elements of these coordinated systems could even be 'scaled-up' to feed into EWS, public health alerts, and targeted harm reduction interventions during high-risk periods (e.g., festival 'seasons') when drug-related harms have been known to spike (16, 46, 47). ...
Background
Alerts about drug market changes (e.g., drug strength, purity, adulterations, or other trends) may be useful to assist health and community workers to anticipate, prevent and respond to unexpected adverse drug events. This study aimed to establish factors influencing the successful design and implementation of drug alerts for use in clinical and community settings in Victoria, Australia.
Methods
We used an iterative, parallel mixed methods participatory design to co-produce drug alert prototypes with practitioners and managers working across alcohol and other drugs and emergency medicine settings. A quantitative needs-analysis survey (n = 184) informed five qualitative co-design workshops (n = 31). Alert prototypes were drafted based on findings and presented for testing of utility and acceptability. Applicable constructs from the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research helped to identify key barriers and facilitators to successful alert design.
Results
Timely and reliable alerts about high-risk single substances were important to nearly all practitioners (98%) yet many reported insufficient access to timely information about drug markets and emerging threat (64%). Alerts were useful for increasing exposure to drug market intelligence; facilitating risk communication; and improving capacity for effective responses. Alerts must be ‘shareable’ across a range of settings to meet the needs of diverse professional and public audiences. Practitioners and managers considered themselves ‘conduits’ for information sharing. To maximize engagement and impact, alerts must be attention-grabbing and easily recognisable; available on multiple platforms; published in printable and electronic formats in varying levels of detail; and disseminated using appropriate notification mechanisms. Three clinical drug alert prototypes (SMS prompt, summary flier, and detailed PDF) were developed and considered acceptable and useful for a range of audiences and settings.
Discussion
Adequate planning and resourcing for effective drug alert design and evaluation arising from jurisdictional and national early warning systems is imperative to their utility. Such systems need to have access to reliable multidisciplinary drug market intelligence for rapid assessment and verification of risk to report timely and effective risk communications. Systems that offer close to real-time detection of adulterants/contaminants (e.g., drug checking services) are best-placed to provide rapid, evidence-based drug market intelligence to inform preventive and responsive action.
... Services associated with dance and festival communities have been identified as an important facilitator of individual harm reduction practices [4][5][6]. Though often evaluated as an individual behavioral interventions alone, drug checking is also being explored by some for its potential as an intervention within the broader community and drug market [7][8][9]. Wallace et al. [9] highlight the potential of drug checking to act as a supply intervention, showcasing how the propensity to evaluate drug checking on individual abstinence-based outcomes can detract from its potential role as an upstream community intervention that has the capability to reduce stigma and improve population health. ...
... Though often evaluated as an individual behavioral interventions alone, drug checking is also being explored by some for its potential as an intervention within the broader community and drug market [7][8][9]. Wallace et al. [9] highlight the potential of drug checking to act as a supply intervention, showcasing how the propensity to evaluate drug checking on individual abstinence-based outcomes can detract from its potential role as an upstream community intervention that has the capability to reduce stigma and improve population health. ...
... Drug checking has been explored for its potential role in engaging people who sell drugs as a harm reduction practice with further reach to those vulnerable to unpredictability in the illicit supply [13][14][15][16]. Wallace et al. [9] highlight the potential of drug checking to act as a supply intervention and to potentiate market interventions by empowering consumers and providers with knowledge of the composition of their substances. Our findings confirm that indeed, drug checking services are used by people who sell drugs to provide some agency within the market and quality control for prospective consumers. ...
Background
Drug checking uses chemical analytical technologies to analyze drugs from the unregulated market to reduce substance use-related risks. We aim to examine the frequency of third party use of a community drug checking service to explore the potential for harm reduction to extend beyond the individual into the community, increase service accessibility, and to contribute to upstream interventions in the supply.
Methods
Over 31 months, data were collected from a point-of-care drug checking service operated in Victoria, Canada. Through the implementation of survey questions at the intake of the service, data were collected about whether the drug check was for the individual, to sell, and/or for others.
Results
Just over half (52%) of service users were checking for reasons that extended beyond individual use. When checking for others, friends were the most common response, representing 52% of responses, and outreach/support workers checking for others was the second most at 32%. Twelve percent of service users reported checking to sell or for a supplier.
Conclusions
Third party checking is a frequent, and important aspect of drug checking services, which through facilitating community engagement and increasing accessibility, has expanded the reach of interventions beyond individuals to reduce risks within the unregulated market. Therefore, drug checking as an overdose response should be responsive and accessible for those using the service on the behalf of others.
... Drug checking is increasingly recognized as an important harm reduction strategy in a variety of situations ranging from testing at music festivals to communitybased efforts and sanctioned safe consumption sites [1,2]. These efforts often began with reagent-based testing, mostly within the rave and festival community, and have recently expanded to drug checking with portable and laboratory-based instruments [3,4]. ...
... The benefits of drug checking must outweigh the risks of accessing the services [6]. As a harm reduction intervention, we argue that drug checking holds potential for impact beyond an individual level, on the unregulated drug market as well as at the community and policy level [2,121]. However, public health and harm reduction organizations lack clear guidance to inform decisions on which instruments to purchase [122]. ...
Drug checking is increasingly being explored outside of festivals and events to be an ongoing service within communities, frequently integrated within responses to illicit drug overdose. The choice of instrumentation is a common question, and the demands on these chemical analytical instruments can be challenging as illicit substances may be more complex and include highly potent ingredients at trace levels. The answer remains nuanced as the instruments themselves are not directly comparable nor are the local demands on the service, meaning implementation factors heavily influence the assessment and effectiveness of instruments. In this perspective, we provide a technical but accessible introduction to the background of a few common drug checking methods aimed at current and potential drug checking service providers. We discuss the following tools that have been used as part of the Vancouver Island Drug Checking Project in Victoria, Canada: immunoassay test strips, attenuated total reflection IR-absorption spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy from powder samples, surface-enhanced Raman scattering in a solution of colloidal gold nanoparticles, and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. Using four different drug mixtures received and tested at the service, we illustrate the strengths, limitations, and capabilities of such instruments, and expose the scientific theory to give further insight into their analytical results. Each case study provides a walk-through-style analysis for a practical comparison between data from several different instruments acquired on the same sample. Ideally, a single instrument would be able to achieve all of the objectives of drug checking. However, there is no clear instrument that ticks every box; low cost, portable, rapid, easy-to-use and provides highly sensitive identification and accurate quantification. Multi-instrument approaches to drug checking may be required to effectively respond to increasingly complex and highly potent substances demanding trace level detection and the potential for quantification.
