Challenges, policy and politics in drug checking: reflections of the TEDItorial team
Drugs, Habits and Social Policy
ISSN: 2752-6739
Article publication date: 29 November 2022
Issue publication date: 7 December 2022
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present some of the continued resistance and challenges faced by drug checking services (DCS) and review how the existing literature and the contributions to the special issue address them, with a view to making recommendations.
Design/methodology/approach
The existing literature and the contributions to the special issue are reviewed.
Findings
Drug checking cannot be equated with quality control. With the appropriate equipment and chemistry staff, DCS can provide quantitative analysis and reliable results. When the product does not match expectations, service users discard the tested substance of concern. To more easily compare the results of different studies and better evaluate drug checking, standardisation of measures is desirable. Uptake of drug checking, notably in festivals, is low and depends in part on the capacity of DCS. Drug checking has added value in monitoring drug markets and is complementary with chemical (forensic) analysis.
Originality/value
This paper interrogates in a relatively comprehensive way the continued resistance to drug checking in light of theoretical and empirical research to derive recommendations that are specific to drug checking and that are addressed to health professionals, researchers and also to policymakers.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the two reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions.
Declaration of conflicting interests: All editors are members of the TEDI network. Nicolas Van der Linden is employed part-time by Modus Vivendi asbl which operates a DCS. Raoul Pieter Joost Koning is employed by the Dutch DCS, Jellinek. Daan van der Gouwe is employed by the Trimbos Institute, where the coordinating office of the Dutch DCS, DIMS is located. Mireia Ventura is employed by ABD-Energy Control. Fiona Measham is founder and (unpaid) Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Loop, UK.
Citation
Van der Linden, N., Koning, R.P.J., van der Gouwe, D., Ventura, M. and Measham, F. (2022), "Challenges, policy and politics in drug checking: reflections of the TEDItorial team", Drugs, Habits and Social Policy, Vol. 23 No. 3, pp. 289-302. https://doi.org/10.1108/DHS-10-2022-0037
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited