Safer Drug Use: 101

Intro slide: Slides for Safer Drug Use: 101

Slide One: Always assume contamination: as long as drugs are illegal the drug supply will always be inconsistent and unreliable! This means you should never assume your drugs are pure or uncontaminated.

Slide Two: Testing: Fentanyl test strips are a great to test drugs fro fentanyl and a dozen other analogs. You can purchase them online or get them for free from your local needle exchange. But test strips do no guarantee your drugs are free of all synthetic opioids.

Slide Three: Testing: No test strips? Investigate your drugs. Does it look like it’s supposed to? How about the smell? Don’t forget to start with a small test shot/bump before doing a full one. Wait to see how you feel. If anything feels different or off, assume yours drugs are contaminated.

Slide Four: The Buddy System: Try to always have a friend either using with you or hanging out with narcan incase someone ODs. Staggering use - one person goes first and the other waits 2-5 minutes before using. This can help ensure that someone will be able to use narcan in case of an overdose.

Slide Five: Narcan and Overdose Prevention: The National Harm Reduction Coalition has some great resources on how to prevent an overdose, where to find narcan and how to administer it. Check out harmreduction.org/our-work/overdose-prevention for more information.