Ramping up drug testing in B.C. could save lives, activists say

published on October 7, 2023 by Michelle Gamage in CHEK News

A free drug-testing service in Vancouver has tested over 50,000 illicit substances as part of a harm reduction initiative that lets people know what is in their drugs.

Anyone can walk into Get Your Drugs Tested at 880 E. Hastings St., hand over a sample of their drugs (staff need about 10 milligrams, or a match head’s worth) and get a phone call, text or email with an explanation of what’s in the substance. Results take under two hours – and sometimes as little as 10 minutes.

Staff can let you know, for example, that the street opioid you’ve purchased as “down” is actually fentanyl cut with caffeine, that what you thought was MDMA is actually MDA or that your meth is clean of adulterants.

Vancouver Coastal Health lists Get Your Drugs Tested, which is open seven days a week from 12 to 8 p.m., as an overdose prevention site…