The National Council for Mental Wellbeing, with support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, developed this brief to share considerations for health departments considering implementing drug checking programs.
Language: English
National Council for Mental Wellbeing – Enhancing Harm Reduction Services in Health Departments: Fentanyl Test Strips and Other Drug Checking Equipment
Remedy Alliance for the People – Drug Checking Implementation Workbook
This resource is intended for harm reduction advocates, administrators, program directors, and anyone who wants to start building a point-of-care and community-based drug checking service using an infrared spectrometer. This workbook will walk through the steps required to start a drug checking service: from conceptualizing the program, incorporating community feedback, purchasing equipment, and hiring staff, through the implementation of the service and continuing education.
DrugChecki.ng Comprehensive Drug Checking Resource Database
This independently run website houses a huge collection of reliable drug checking resources
Forensic Technology Center of Excellence – An Introduction to Drug Checking and Its Role in Harm Reduction
Provides an overview of harm reduction services and what value they provide to PWUD
Describes modes of drug checking within harm reduction settings, and offers observations and lessons learned from emerging drug checking needs
Drug checking services for people who use drugs: a systematic review
Drug checking services provide people who use drugs with chemical analysis results of their drug samples while simultaneously monitoring the unregulated drug market. We sought to identify and synthesize literature on the following domains: (a) the influence of drug checking services on the behaviour of people who use drugs; (b) monitoring of drug markets by drug checking services; and (c) outcomes related to models of drug checking services.
Brave YouTube Page
Several videos explaining the Brave overdose detection products, their community app, and clips from their annual Tech and Harm Reduction Symposium
XBrave YouTube Page
Q&A: SHNS Talks With SafeSpot’s Stephen Murray
SafeSpot is “the only truly government-funded overdose hotline in the U.S.,” Murray said, and fields calls not just from Massachusetts, but across the nation and Canada. As Massachusetts struggles with waves of opioid-related overdose deaths, Murray and SafeSpot are attempting to lower the death rate by providing support for people using drugs, based on the understanding that using drugs alone is the biggest risk factor for fatal overdoses.
