A Joint Oireachtas Committee was told today that drug-checking services are needed in ‘as many spaces as possible’ in order to reduce drug-related harms and deaths.

Green Party Senator Mal O’Hara asked Niamh Eastwood, the Executive Director of Release UK, a drug-policy charity, and Ruby Lawlor of Youth RISE, an international youth-based harm-reduction charity, about the potential of drug-checking in Ireland.

Niamh Eastwood stated that these services have been extremely effective in the UK, citing the Welsh service WEDINOS, which collects samples of drugs from the general public to analyse their contents and sends the lab results back to the sender.

The committee was given evidence supporting the efficacy of this kind of drug checking in reducing drug-related harm, with people who discover they have contaminated samples far more likely to discard them.

Ms. Eastwood mentioned that these schemes don’t have to be “that expensive,” and collection points for drug checking can be established around the country, with their contents sent to a dedicated lab for detailed analysis.

Ruby Lawlor of Youth RISE stated that more drug-checking in Ireland “needs to just happen now” and can be implemented within the current policy framework, without requiring substantial changes.

She mentioned that the type of drug-checking provided by WEDINOS and others “can happen in the current model” and that, in the absence of legal regulation of drugs in Ireland, it is the “best way” to combat the overdose crisis.

This comes just one week after senior HSE figure Professor Eamon Keenan said that more resources are needed for the HSE’s own drug-checking programme.

Currently, the HSE provides ‘back-of-house’ drug-checking at select music festivals. This type of drug-checking involves anonymous donations of drugs which are privately analysed by the HSE, with the end-user not receiving the results of the analysis.

The HSE now work with emergency services to monitor and check the drug supply across Ireland, typically responding to overdose clusters. This initiative has sparked a number of ‘red-alerts’ across Dublin and the mid-west due to nitazine contamination.

Keenen suggested to the Oireachtas that up to two times the current levels of funding are needed to properly resource drug-checking in Ireland.

The full meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Drugs Use can be viewed here.