Pubdate: Mon, 25 Aug 2014
Source: Journal-Pioneer, The (CN PI)
Page: A8
Copyright: 2014 Journal-Pioneer
Contact:  http://www.journalpioneer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2789
Author: Anne-Marie Vettorel
Cited: Toronto's Trip Project: http://www.tripproject.ca/trip/

DRUG-TESTING KITS HAVE LIMITATIONS, BUT CAN PREVENT DEATHS:
ADVOCATES

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 other
strategies like 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 coordinator 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 allow
people to get an 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.

Andrew Jolie, an electronic music enthusiast, said he has seen people
use test kits in Miami, but not in Canada.

"Generally, they turn different colours for different substances. The
ones I've seen, for (popular club drug) MDMA it would turn a dark blue
and for speed or cocaine or some other kind of amphetamine, it would
turn green or yellow," he said.

"You see the colour right away. If it's bright, dark blue, then you
might not need to test it again. If it has some discolouration or
something else in it, then you might want to give it another test."

The kits are available for sale online and cost about $25. 
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D