2025-06-11 –, BS G.33 - 120 cap.
Background
Drug checking services – combining rapid chemical analysis of substances of concern with individually tailored healthcare consultations – have been expanding around the world across the last decade. Much of the effort has been focused on their launch, operational design and impact. Little consideration has been given to the wider policy context and how the framings of drug checking impacts on their utilisation and regulation.
Objectives
This paper will explore wider issues of governance and where drug checking fits into the wider legislative and policy landscapes of their host countries alongside broader debates about drug control, policing, public health and harm reduction.
Methods
This paper will provide a critical review of drug checking governance, using the UK as a case study, with additional consideration of other Commonwealth countries where drug checking services have also expanded in recent years.
Results
The first ‘test case’ drug checking licence issued to the UK’s first regular drug checking service in 2023 is compared and contrasted with primary legislation in New Zealand, legislative exemption in Canada, and various licensing models in Australian states. The implications of the new UK drug checking licence are considered in relation to funding, operational design, recruitment and broader research and evaluation.
Implications
Understanding the broader policy landscape can assist in supporting the launch and expansion of drug checking services in different, and sometimes hostile, funding and policy landscapes, against backdrops of both reform and restriction.
Professor Fiona Measham, Chair in Criminology, University of Liverpool and founder and Chair of the Board of Trustees of The Loop
Professor Mark McCormack, Chair in Sociology, Aston University and member of senior research team of The Loop
Professor Fiona Measham has been Chair in Criminology at the University of Liverpool since 2019. She has spent over three decades researching trends in drug use, their relationship with drug policy and the wider socio-cultural contexts to use. Fiona has authored and co-authored over 100 publications, most recently exploring aspects of drug cultures, harm reduction and the interface of drugs and sexuality, as well as engagement in nightlife, underpinned by critical understandings of policy change and social justice. Fiona is co-founder and trustee of The Loop (2012-) and The Loop Australia (2018-), award-winning charities best known for introducing drug checking services in the UK and three Australian states.