Drug testing comes to Queenstown
No cops, no names, no judgement - just free, legal drug-testing and advice.
Aotearoa drug-checking service Know Your Stuff NZ will be at Queenstown Memorial Centre this Saturday, 30 November, offering a drug-testing clinic from noon to 4pm.
Backed by $5000 of funding from Queenstown Lakes District Council, the clinic enables people to bring in samples of their drugs to test whether it is what they think it is, and what the likely affects will be if they take it.
"We want to spread the word that we're here to help," KYSNZ general manager Casey Spearin tells the Lakes Weekly.
"Our service is really important for a number of reasons. Obviously, by checking we can identify whether there are dangerous things in circulation, which can quickly become a big problem at an event.
"We've seen some pretty shocking things come through in the past few months. There were some samples in Wellington recently that were supposed to be MDMA but were actually mercury chloride, which is incredibly toxic. If that happens, we have the systems and networks to put out alerts. Last December just before New Year's at a clinic in Christchurch, we detected Alpha-D2PV, which is quite a dangerous synthetic drug, so we were able to warn people."
Spearin says about two-thirds of what KYSNZ tests is MDMA, but they also test a lot of cocaine, LSD and other drugs.
"We find between 10-15% of what we test is not what it's supposed to be. It can be a huge range of things instead - sometimes it's baking powder and its harmless, and sometimes it's very harmful things, such as nitazenes, which are another class of synthetic opioid that's even more potent than fentanyl."
The clinics also provide a opportunity for people to have an honest and confidential chat with someone about their drug use and behaviours.
"People tell us they won't talk to their family doctor about drug use but after we've run their sample through the spectrometer and explained the results, they can be more open to talk to us."
And there's no chance of cops waiting outside. Drug testing clinics and attendees are protected by legislation, and police can't use that as evidence against them, or as a reason to search someone.
"We always recommend people bring only a very small sample, just enough to be tested. But in general the police are very supportive or what we do."
Spearin says Queenstown Lakes, which has some of the highest cocaine and party-drug use in the country, is a priority for KYSNZ and they will be back in Queenstown and Wānaka for more testing clinics just before New Year's. They hope to obtain more funding to become established in the region.
KnowYourStuffNZ’s service includes:
- providing factual information about drugs and drug use in general, signs of excessive or dependent use to look out for, and information about where to get help for drug related problems
- testing substances using reagents and infra-red spectroscopy to discern the content of a sample
- providing accurate information about specific substances detected within a sample, including active and toxic dose, expected duration, reasons to not take a substance, what to expect psychologically, how to have a safer experience, and symptoms to look out for that signal danger
