New to Drug checking?

Check out our Drug Checking Basics.

The Experts

If you’re ready to get a machine and do drug checking, the best place to get started is the Drug Checkers Guild drop-in hours at Remedy Alliance For The People. They meet second and fourth Wednesdays 4pm EST/3pm CST/1pm PST (link to zoom).

Please review the resources below before going to office hours. A lot of careful attention went into developing these free guides from around the world. You can get much of what you need answered right here.

Here's direct links to RAFTP pre-implementation checklist, job description for technician, materials list, sample budget, and considerations for new technologies.

Our Canadian colleagues have excellent resources, like the Drug Checking Implementation Guide, standard operating procedures (SOPs), and technician manuals.

StreetCheck at Brandeis University has these startup resources: Drug Checking Presented by Folks who Aren't Scientists, technology and partnership considerations, the 3 stages of program maturity, plain language summaries of substances.

The Trans European Drug Information Network (TEDI) has this great set of guidelines for methodology.

Government Resources

Drug Checking | National Institute on Drug Abuse

Research is evaluating whether checking drugs for substances like fentanyl and xylazine may reduce harm.

National Institute on Drug AbuseNational Institute on Drug Abuse

From a governmental level, although from 2021 and a lot has expanded since then, this ASPE document is a decent review.

Introduction to Drug Checking and its Role in Harm Reduction | Office of Justice Programs

Intended for professionals who work in or provide ancillary services for public health and public safety, this “In-Brief” from the Forensic Technology Center of Excellence presents an overview of harm-reduction services for people who use illicit drugs (PWUD) in the United States, describes modes of drug checking within harm-reduction settings, and offers observations and lessons learned from emerging drug-checking needs.

Office of Justice Programs

Scientific Evaluations

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…

PubMed Central (PMC)Nazlee Maghsoudi

Legal Analysis

Legality of Drug Checking Equipment in the United States - Network for Public Health Law

Contaminants including fentanyl and fentanyl analogs are now present in the illicit drug supply throughout the U.S. Because no safe supply of most illicitly used drugs is available, helping people determine what is in the drugs they obtain can be an impactful harm reduction intervention. The easiest and most inexpensive way to accomplish this is often through use of fentanyl test strips and xylazine test strips. This resource outlines the legality of drug checking equipment in 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Network for Public Health LawCorey Davis