About Drug Checking
The Loop is currently developing drug checking services. We work with a number of partners, including public health, the Home Office, police, drug treatment providers and the events industry when delivering our services.
Drug checking has a number of proven benefits:
To identify trends in illicit drug markets and drug use;
To identify substances of concern that may put users at a greater level of risk;
To identify the contents of substances that are already a cause for concern, for example, already leading to people seeking medical attention;
To provide information to those treating drug-related incidents, so that medical and support services can provide prompt, informed and targeted treatment;
To link harm reduction advice directly with chemical analysis of substances of concern currently in circulation in local drug markets, which research shows to be more effective;
To reach hidden and hard-to-reach populations who otherwise do not engage with existing substance misuse services;
To provide information that can be distributed via media, social media, early warning systems and other channels relating to particular substances, in consultation with stakeholders, to reduce drug-related harm and to minimise the possibility of a major public safety incident.
To read more about our published research, please click here.