Pubdate: Mon, 25 Aug 2014
Source: Regina Leader-Post (CN SN)
Page: A5
Copyright: 2014 The Leader-Post Ltd.
Contact: http://www.leaderpost.com/opinion/letters/letters-to-the-editor.html
Website: http://www.leaderpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/361
Author: Anne-Marie Vettorel
Cited: Toronto's Trip Project: http://www.tripproject.ca/trip/

DRUG-TESTING KITS CAN HELP PREVENT PARTY DRUG FATALITIES

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 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.

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.
The kits cost about $25.

Testing a substance 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.  
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D