Drug checking

You can call or text us to know where we are and will be: 438-887-8338.

To make a request for our services, write to analyse@grip-prevention.ca

What is drug checking?

Drug checking is the process of finding out more information about a drug. Usually this is because a drug was purchased on the unregulated market, and a person wants to find out if it is what they think it is. The purpose of drug checking projects is to reduce harm associated with drug use, and in that, to prevent overdose. We believe in the autonomy of individuals and respect that each person will make their own decisions. We aim to increase the information available to a person, so that their decisions can be as informed as possible.

GRIP has launched its mobile drug checking service

How does it work?

The service is open to everyone who uses or plans to use drugs who would like to know more about what they intend to use. The service is free, anonymous, and confidential.

In our drug checking service, we encourage the participant to be a part of the decision making process where we decide on which drug checking techniques we will use.

To obtain the most precise and accurate results, we may have to crush or break up and mix the participant’s sample. If this is a barrier for them, we are able to adapt our service to meet their needs. We only need a small amount of a sample, about the size of a sunflower seed. We work with the participant’s limits in terms of the quantity of substance they are willing to lose (none if they don’t want to!), and in terms of the physical transformation of the substance.

Due to the limits of our technologies, we cannot determine the purity or strength of a substance, however we aim to discover as much about the composition as possible.

The entire process takes about 15 to 30 minutes, and the sample can be returned to the participant!

If a person does not want their sample back, or forgets it in the van, we destroy the sample right away.

Where does it happen?

We operate our mobile drug checking service on the island of Montreal. More specifically, we usually operate in the neighbourhood of the Plateau Mont-Royal, near Mont-Royal metro station.

We also operate our service with other partner organizations, like Plein Milieu, Hotel Dieu, La Maison Benoit Labre, Centre SIDA-Secours, and Spectre de Rue.

Our van will hopefully be present at some music festivals in Montreal during the summer, and we can also bring the drug checking van to underground raves.

(contact intervention@grip-prevention.ca). To know where we’ll be this week, take a look at our calendar.

SAS - Drug Checking

Technologies used

We use three different drug checking technologies. While they are powerful and help us gain information about the sample, we are not able, at the moment, to determine the purity or strength of your substance.

Here is a short description of each drug checking technology we use:

  • We have two types of test strips, those that detect fentanyl and those that detect benzodiazepines. Basically, the sample is dissolved in water and then the strip is dipped in. The strips are interpreted as positive (one line) or negative (two lines).
  • For strips, only a small amount of the sample is needed (about 1 mg for fentanyl strips and 2-3 mg for benzo strips).
  • 1 mg is approximately equal to one or two grains of salt.
  • It is very important that the sample is homogenised as much as possible before taking the small amount for the test.
  • The sample is dissolved in water but the liquid can be returned to the service user if they desire.

  • Colorimetric reagents are different chemicals that react with specific substances and change colour depending on the substance. The colours are compared to a colour chart, which shows the expected reaction colours for certain expected substances.
  • Each test requires about 2-5 mg of sample (a few grains of salt). The sample must be ground and homogenised.
  • Paper samples can be analysed: for one reagent, about 1/8 of a blotter should be used.
  • When the reagent is added to the sample. the substance is immediately destroyed and cannot be returned to the service user.
  • We use colorimetric reagents from Test Kit Plus.

  • FT-IR is a portable machine that uses the absorption of light to identify a sample. Simply put, every substance absorbs infrared light differently, and if the absorption pattern is in our library, we can identify the components of a sample.
  • For FT-IR, we need about 10 mg of a sample, which is the size of a sunflower seed. The sample must be ground and homogenised as much as possible.
  • The sample can be returned entirely to the service user.
Drug checking on board a mobile vehicle

Drug checking reports

We publish reports about the samples we have checked on a bimonthly basis. You can find the reports here.

Frequently Asked Questions

We have a legal exemption from Health Canada that allows us to manipulate controlled substances in our van only.

We do not offer an on-call service, but you can check out our website and social media to find out where we will be. If there is not a time or location that suits you, you could also check out another drug checking service in Montreal, located by Berri-UQAM metro, called Checkpoint.

Yes, but for the moment only if you do not want it returned to you. If you are ok leaving a small amount of sample with us which will be destroyed after the tests, we can analyze the substance in your absence. We can return the results to you by email, phone, or text.

We never confiscate a substance from anyone. We never stop anyone from using a substance (and how could we do that anyway?). We believe in personal autonomy and want to help people reduce their risk by providing them with fact-based, non-judgmental information, answering as many of their questions as possible, and offering safer material. We can safely destroy the substance if that is what the person wants, but we will never make that decision for them, unless the substance was forgotten in our van, in which case we systematically destroy it.

We use 3 technologies: the Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR), colorimetric reagents, and fentanyl and benzodiazepine test strips. We use the spectrometer for almost all substances because it does not destroy the substance and provides more accurate results. However, with the spectrometer, we cannot analyze anything organic, such as plant matter or food, and anything present at less than 5% is not detectable. That’s why we also use the test strips for almost every analysis. They can allow us to detect fentanyl or certain benzodiazepines that might go undetected on the FT-IR. We use colorimetric reagents less frequently, but in some cases they allow us to identify the active component of a sample.

We can’t give percentage information actually, and keeping in mind the limitations of our technologies, we can’t give any information on the purity of the substance. With more advanced technologies like GC/LC-MS or qNMR, we would be able to determine the purity. We hope that these technologies will be in the future of GRIP

We have protocols to ensure that our equipment and spectrometer are in good working order. Every time the spectrometer is used, a performance test is performed on the machine. We also regularly check the colorimetric reagents to ensure that they are not contaminated or out of date. We do not check the test strips, but we make sure to check their expiration date and keep them in the appropriate storage conditions.

We never use the words “good” or “bad” for the drugs we test because the experience of the substance depends on so many factors, such as the purity of the substance and environment of the trip. In our drug checking service, we see many samples where we are only able to detect the expected substance. We must always keep in mind that each of our technologies has limitations. So even if we only find the expected substance, other substances could very well be present.

We can’t say conclusively because our technologies can’t give the percentage composition. However, in many cases, when we test cocaine we find only cocaine. This does not mean it is pure because we cannot detect anything less than around 5% with the spectrometer. This means that even if we only detect cocaine, there could be 10 other components present at 4%, which could make up 40% of the sample.

You can see all of our drug checking reports on our website at this link.

We don’t see many MDMA pressed pills, the most common pills we see are speed pills. Most of the time we find methamphetamine in these pills, along with other cutting agents like caffeine and fillers like cellulose. These are all listed in our drug checking reports.

One result that was really not desired by the person who came to our service was a pill that was supposed to be speed, but contained only caffeine. That’s a bad deal!

As far as “dangerous substances” are concerned, yes we have found in a few rare cases something unexpected that could cause an overdose in someone who does not have a tolerance. However, in most of the substances we test, we find the expected substance, as well as active and/or inactive cutting agents.

In general, we do not like to use the word “dangerous” because it does not take into account the many factors that influence a substance’s effect. 

In the absolute sense, all use is dangerous, including alcohol and prescription drugs (and mixtures of prescription and over-the-counter drugs, for that matter). In our service we recommend strategies to reduce risk with the expected substance, as well as unexpected substances. Most of the time, we are not surprised by the results, but in rare cases, we have found cathinones (“bath salts”) instead of the expected MDMA, or a potent synthetic opioid (isotonitazene) in a pill that was supposed to be something else (all our reports are on our website).

What we test the most is coke and MDMA!

Because our service is 100% legal, people who use our service are legally protected while in the van. However, they are not protected while traveling to and from the van. We recommend that people who want to come and use our service only carry a small amount of the substance (about the size of a sunflower seed). 

Is it possible for a person to be arrested after being seen leaving the van? Yes, it is possible. To date, we have spoken with several police departments and their reaction has been positive, they seemed happy that we exist, and there was no resistance when we asked them to not approach the vehicle. 

We also notified the Plateau stations (our office is on the Plateau) and we have an informal agreement that they will not park near or drive around our van. This has been respected to date, and we hope it stays that way. 

We should also mention that the supervised consumption sites (SCS) in Montreal have paved the way for us in terms of legality and dealing with the police. SCS have really helped change the mindset of public health and police towards harm reduction. So we hope that most police officers in Montreal are aware of harm reduction practices and why their presence doesn’t necessarily make people want to check their drugs.

We will answer this question in several parts. To begin with, when we talk about “date rape drugs” we are usually referring to GHB. We need to keep in mind that there are many other substances that can be added to a drink that could be used for this purpose. So even if we tested an alcoholic drink and found no GHB, we could not say that the drink was not drugged. Also, let’s not forget that the most common drug involved in sexually violent situations is alcohol.

Now to talk about whether or not we can detect GHB. Yes, we are able to detect GHB but only in certain cases. First of all, the GHB should not be too diluted in water. This means that if a few drops of GHB are put in a drink, we will not necessarily be able to detect it. This is a limit for all substances, if they are too diluted in water we will not be able to detect them on the FT-IR. 

So we can’t necessarily detect GHB in a drink, even if it is in high enough concentration to have an effect. Unfortunately, the advice we give is often focused on the person drinking, which is a shame. The first advice we would give is “don’t put substances in people’s drinks without their knowledge”. Otherwise, the strategies we recommend to reduce risk are: don’t leave your drink unattended, try to stay in a group, have your emergency contacts with you at all times, and make sure at least one person knows where you are and for how long.

At this time, we are not aware of any laboratories in Quebec that accept controlled substances from the public for in-depth analysis. However, there is a drug checking service in Toronto that accepts samples in person and uses more advanced technology. There are also two mail-in services: in Canada, it is Get Your Drugs Tested, and in the United States it is www.drugsdata.org.

We have been a non-profit organization for 25 years, our drug checking service has only been open since October 2021. We have several sources of funding, but the most important is government funding, from various strategies such as overdose prevention. We also have funding for specific projects, such as violence prevention and the drug checking service. Some of our funding also comes from the events we provide services for, the training we provide, and the prevention cards and posters we sell on our website.

Our group is made up of people with a variety of backgrounds, such as sexology, chemistry, theater and psychology. We all have experience working in a party environment and we keep up to date with the latest technology and our intervention skills!

We send monthly reports to public health, but we never collect personally identifiable information, so no identifying information is ever sent to public health or anyone else.

To become a GRIP volunteer, you can find the information by clicking on this link, and to be in contact with the drug checking project coordinator, email Roxanne at analyse@grip-prevention.ca.