Pubdate: Mon, 25 Aug 2014
Source: Windsor Star (CN ON)
Page: A6
Copyright: 2014 The Windsor Star
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/501
Author: Anne-Marie Vettorel
Cited: Toronto's Trip Project: http://www.tripproject.ca/trip/

KITS THAT TEST 'PARTY DRUGS' COULD HELP PREVENT DEATHS

But They're Not 100% Accurate, Experts Warn

TORONTO - Drug-testing kits currently available in Canada have
limitations, but they can be part of the solution to help prevent
unnecessary deaths at live concerts such as Toronto's Veld music
festival, where two people died earlier this month after taking what's
believed to be "party drugs," says a harm-reduction group.

Toronto's Trip Project says the testing kits, when combined with
strategies such as drug education, could make drug use safer for
people who will not abstain from risky behaviour.

"People die at music festivals. That's not a thing that we should just
accept," said Lori Kufner, a co-ordinator with the city-funded
organization.

Kufner said that testing kits for synthetic so-called "party" drugs
may be a way of reducing risks, but they aren't widely used, and some
people who take drugs don't even know they're available.

"There's a lot of other drugs that are being created and sold and
passed off as other substances. Buying street drugs, you never really
know what it is," she said.

"If you test it for something and it ends up being something that you
didn't think it was going to be, you can still make an informed
decision of whether to toss it or do it anyway."

Health Canada says all synthetic club drugs are considered equally
harmful and are unsafe even in so-called "pure" forms.

Police are still trying to determine what drugs may have been consumed
by a 20-year-old woman and a 22-year-old man who died, and 13 others
who were sickened at the Veld Music Festival in Toronto's Downsview
Park. Police said all 15 people ingested what they believe was a party
drug purchased at the festival.

Adrienne Smith, a staff lawyer with the Pivot Legal Society in
Vancouver, said that simply condemning the use of illegal drugs is not
a solution.

"Currently, illicit drug use is happening at parties. What we do about
that is the important question," she said.

"What the harm-reduction community has decided to do is to acknowledge
that it's happening and to address some of the harms so that people
don't die," she said.

But drug-test kits remain "under the radar," said Karim Rifaat, the
owner of Test Kit Plus, a Montreal company that sells the kits online.

"A lot of people who like to use drugs recreationally don't even know
that it's possible to test them," he said.

He stressed that the kits are not 100 per cent accurate.

"It's not as good as sending it to a lab," he said, but they give
overall idea of the constituents of a capsule, tablet, or powder drug
sample.

"If you have no idea what's in your tablet and you just take it,
that's probably one of the worst things you can do," he said.

Testing a substance, Kufner said, requires mixing a single drop of
chemical reagent with a sample of the party drug (usually a scraping
of powder the size of the tip of a pen) on a glass or ceramic plate,
and comparing the colour of the reaction to a chart.

The kits are available for sale online and cost about $25. Rifaat said
Test Kit Plus has been selling them for about a year, and awareness -
and business - is "growing."

Det. Jeffrey Ross of the Toronto Drug Squad said he understands how
testing kits might be perceived as useful but expressed concern at the
number of substances in their blind spots. He said testing kits could
give drug users a false impression of safety.  
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D