Free drug checks in Wanaka and Queenstown will kick off again this summer thanks to support from the Queenstown Lakes District Council. 

KnowYourStuffNZ provides drug related harm reduction services at events around New Zealand, including drug checking. 

The result of every test is recorded and each year they collate their results across the event season, analysing:

• what people thought they had
• what they actually had, and
• what decisions they made about taking the substance

KnowYourStuffNZ started offering the service in Queenstown Lakes back in 2022, and this year they’ll also be at Rhythm and Alps in Cardrona for the first time.

General manager Casey Spearin said from their testing nationally, about one in 10 samples “are not what they were presumed to be.”

The substances most commonly brought to them were presumed to be:

• MDMA (60%)
• Dissociatives such as ketamine (12%),
• Unknown substances (8%)
• Indoles such as LSD or psilocybin/mushrooms (7%)

Casey said across the clinics they ran last year, about 30 samples came in Wānaka and about 10 in Queenstown. 

“Our Wānaka team ended up staying open several hours later than scheduled as there were more clients than expected.”

Six percent of samples were not what people thought they were. “These samples either contained an extra psychoactive substance along with the desired substance, or were something else entirely.”

He said that didn’t include samples brought to them as unknown, or samples that had "fillers" (substances that are generally considered harmless or low harm e.g. creatine, caffeine, paracetamol).

“Though it's very worth noting that depending on the person's health and other medications they are on, fillers can pose a risk of harm. Clients are always informed if we have detected fillers in their

sample.”

In terms of substitutions, they did detect a number of risky substances, for instance 4-chloromethcathinone and eutylone (synthetic cathinones, often sold as MDMA).  

KnowYourStuffNZ will be holding clinics in Wanaka on Sunday December 28 at the Lake Wanaka Centre from 10:30am-4:30pm, and at the Queenstown Memorial Centre on Saturday December 27

from 1pm-4pm.

Further clinics will be held in the New Year in Wanaka on January 9 and March 13, and in Queenstown on February 13.