VPD executes arrest and search warrant on drug testing operation

published on November 20, 2023 by Olivia Sherman in The Peak

On November 1, the director and founder of Get Your Drugs Tested, Dana Larsen, was arrested after a search warrant from the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) was executed. The VPD raided Larsen’s three Medicinal Mushroom dispensary locations. He was released without charges or conditions seven hours after his arrest. The arrest and search warrant came just days after the VPD arrested co-founders of the Drug User Liberation Front (DULF), Jeremy Kalicum and Eris Nyx. The Peak reached out to Larsen for more information.

Larsen, a lifelong drug advocate, started Vancouver’s third cannabis dispensary in 2008. After its closure in 2019, he had the idea to rebrand the East Hastings dispensary to check drugs for harmful substances, something largely inaccessible to many people who use drugs. Get Your Drugs Tested uses a Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) machine to scan for harmful substances contaminating drugs. The operation is funded through sales of psychedelics from Larsen’s other businesses. He keeps his drug testing services free to customers, as he told The Peak in 2021, “I wouldn’t want to feel that, for the lack of a $5 bill, someone had an overdose and died.” To date, Get Your Drugs Tested has tested over 60,000 drug samples, “making [them] the world’s busiest drug analysis centre” of street drugs, Larsen said…