This episode of the Just Science Podcast discusses increasing access to drug-checking services to prevent overdose deaths.
In episode four of the Community-based Solutions for Substance Use Challenges season, Just Science interviews Nabarun Dasgupta, pharmacoepidemiologist and senior scientist in the UNC Injury Prevention Research Center, and Erin Tracy, research chemist in the UNC injury Prevention Research Center, to discuss their unique approach to providing drug-checking services on a broad scale. To address and prevent overdose deaths, it is crucial that local public health and harm reduction groups can check which substances are being used in a community so that they can make informed decisions about local services, policy, and education. The UNC Street Drug Analysis Lab has made these important drug checking services more widely accessible by developing mail-in drug checking kits, which allow organizations to collect their own samples to submit for lab analysis and provide anonymized results back. Dasgupta and Tracy discuss types of drug checking technology, navigating the legal and logistical challenges of mailing street drug samples, and the positive impact of their drug checking program.