Drug checking service (SAS)

Report on samples analyzed in January 2022

In January, we made some changes to our hours and locations, we now operate the drug checking service at least two days a week. In particular, we started our collaboration with the Hotel Dieu shelter every Thursday from 7 to 10 pm and our partnership with the Maison Benoît Labre one Saturday per month. We stopped operating the service at Parc Lafontaine and instead offer the service on Wednesday evenings from 5 to 8 pm on St-Denis Street in front of our new office.

We have found that so far, the change from Parc Lafontaine to St Denis Street has increased the accessibility of the service, as it is closer to the metro. The location may change as summer approaches, as foot traffic increases in the neighbourhood and festive gatherings resume.

Here we present our report and data from analyses we conducted in January 2022 using three types of analytical technologies: colorimetric reagents, fentanyl and benzodiazepine strips, and infrared spectrometry (FT-IR).

Due to the limitations of our hours and locations of operation, as well as our technologies, the results of our report likely do not represent the true composition of drugs in the unregulated Montreal market.

Key points

• During this period we analyzed 8 samples.
• We were not able to detect the active component in a samples of magic mushrooms, as our technologies are too sensitive to organic matter.
• One positive results on the fentanyl test strips was obtained when testing a sample of methamphetamine.

Download the complete report here.

We are interested in receiving your questions, comments and suggestions to improve the presentation of the analysis results. To do so, please contact the service coordinator at the following email address: analyse@grip-prevention.ca

We update our schedule at the beginning of each week on our website and on social media.  Stay tuned for our next service dates and locations!