’ s drug markets are becoming increasingly more volatile and unpredictable,’ EUDA executive director Dr Lorraine Nolan told the agency’ s webinar to mark this year’ s International Drug Checking Day.‘ We’ re seeing a wider range of substances than in the past, and often they’ re of high purity and appearing in new forms, mixtures and combinations – and frequently mis-sold,’ she said. This made drug checking an essential intervention, playing a key role across three interconnected domains – harm reduction, drug market monitoring, and public health alerts.

It was also a vital way to build user trust, said Mireia Ventura of Spanish drug checking service Energy Control.‘ When we reach people

we’ re not judging – we’ re just focused on the risk,’ she stated.‘ It also helps us to understand the reality of the market, because we have a dangerous gap between what people think they’ ve bought and what the substance actually contains.’

HIGH-IMPACT WARNINGS Her service provided a unique overview by monitoring the market from the end user’ s perspective, she said –‘ a real-time window into what’ s circulating on the street, and helping us to understand the drug trends and public health needs.’ It also meant an opportunity to disseminate high-impact warnings among the target population, many of whom rarely if ever engaged with other health services.

Her organisation was part of the Trans-European Drug

Information( TEDI) network of drug-checking services, which between 2021 and 2025 collected almost 12,000 MDMA powder and crystal samples, more than 22,000 cocaine samples and around 7,000 ketamine samples. While adulteration of classic stimulants such as cocaine and MDMA remained low, adulteration of substances like mephedrone was particularly high, she said.‘ Most of the samples sold as mephedrone didn’ t have mephedrone in them.’

Successful integration of drug checking services depended on strong collaboration, clear communication, and sustained trust from the drugusing community, said Laura Smit-Rigter of the Utrechtbased Trimbos Institute. Her organisation coordinated the Drug Information and Monitoring

System( DIMS), a network of more than 30 drug checking services that was able to provide a comprehensive picture of emerging trends and harms.

Originally established during the early 90s ecstasy boom, DIMS was formally continued as a national monitoring system commissioned by the Dutch health ministry, and allowed to carry out its work through a formal waiver of the country’ s Opium Act. It tests a wide range of substances, collected either through designated consulting hours or street-level outreach work, with people given a phone number with a unique code to request their results.‘ They get information about the composition and the risk,’ she said.‘ We’ re still learning, because the market is so dynamic and volatile, so we need to adapt, we need to adjust.’

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20 • DRINK AND DRUGS NEWS • MAY 2026

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