08/08/2017 #TestItTuesday Alert: Always Check Your LSD

I don’t need to test my LSD, right? Wrong. With the flood of New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) entering the unregulated illicit market, all substances are at risk of being adulterated or misrepresented. Becoming more and more prevalent in the drug market is 25i-NBOMe, a psychedelic hallucinogen that is being misrepresented and sold as LSD. “N-Bomb,” as it is oftentimes referred to, is a clear liquid with a bitter taste that can easily be placed onto blotter and sold as “acid.” Fortunately, DanceSafe’s Erhlich’s reagent can tell you whether you have a substance that contains an indole alkaloid, the main hallucinogenic property...

August 8, 2017Read more...

August 1st #TestItTuesday Alert: Domino Tablet Sold As MDMA Tests as Caffeine, Methamphetamine, and MDA

A domino-shaped white tablet sourced from Miami and sold as MDMA tested as caffeine, methamphetamine, and MDA. The tablet is scored on one side with a 3:5 domino piece and contains pink-red specks. Reactions on Marquis were light orange, while there was very slight change on Mecke and Mandelin to yellow and green, respectively. This is a stark contrast from another domino-shaped white tablet submitted last month which tested as MDMA thus this serves as a reminder that substance identification cannot be done by sight. Since test results were published earlier in the month, there is a good chance that this tablet...

August 1, 2017Read more...

It’s Not the Chemicals, It’s the Cages

Drugs cause addiction*. It is a rhetoric deeply ingrained into the American psyche based on a series of rat experimentations that placed one rat alone in a cage with two water bottles--one containing cocaine or heroin, the other just water. The rat chose the cocaine- or heroin-laced water every time until it died. The results from this study prompted decades of fear-based propaganda labeling certain drugs as highly addictive, including this commercial that aired in the 1980’s by Partnership for a Drug-Free America. But in the 1970s, a professor of Psychology in Vancouver named Bruce Alexander believed that the rat...

July 31, 2017Read more...

Fentanyl Testing Strips Have Limitations But Are Better Than Nothing

Last week, DanceSafe began offering fentanyl testing strips for purchase on its website in response to the ever-growing number of deaths related to fentanyl, carfentanil, and other opioid analogues. While the testing strips can identify most fentanyl-related analogues, there are still limitations that every consumer and harm reductionist should be aware of, as discussed in this article by Canada’s CBC. While there is a concern that the strips could give consumers a false sense of security due to the potential of false negatives, there currently is no better alternative for people who are worried about adulterated drugs. DanceSafe’s original intent...

July 28, 2017Read more...

Test It Alert: Powder Sold as MDA Tests as Potent Synthetic Cannabinoid

Just today from Utah a sample that was represented as MDA (Sass) was instead found to be AMB-FUBINACA, a potent synthetic cannabinoid. Related compounds sold in the black market as ‘molly’ and as smokable ‘legal highs’ have hospitalized and killed users both in the United States and overseas. Last June, a mass casualty event in Brooklyn where 18 were hospitalized and 33 treated was due to smoked plant matter that had been sprayed with AMB-FUBINACA. The potentially fatal dose for oral consumption of this substance is unknown. The reagent reactions for this particular compound were slight orange on Marquis, slight...

July 26, 2017Read more...

July 25th #TestItTuesday Alert: Blue Sun Pill Sold as Ecstasy Tests as Amphetamine

A blue pill sourced from Zurich, Switzerland is being marketed and sold as ecstasy (MDMA). Test results published on Friday show the tablet contains 21.1 mg of amphetamine, a common stimulant that is found in Adderall and black market drugs such as speed. As Erowid states, amphetamines are “the standard against which all other stimulants are measured.” Although a commonly used drug, an amphetamine experience is much different than an MDMA experience, so it is always important to know what substance you are consuming in order to properly prepare yourself. Purchase your DanceSafe drug checking kit here so you can identify...

July 25, 2017Read more...

No, Nitrous Does Not Deprive Your Brain of Oxygen

Nitrous oxide (often referred to as laughing gas, whippets, cartridges, hippy crack, N2O, or nangs) is a gas inhalant used medically and recreationally as an anesthetic agent. It is often believed that the effects of nitrous, which include euphoria, sound distortion, and minor to strong hallucinations, is caused by oxygen deprivation to the brain. This is a common misconception. Nitrous oxide on its own has low potency and many consider it an inert, benign gas that has little if any influence on vital physiologic functions (though this is not true when nitrous oxide is combined with other anesthetics, sedatives, or...

July 24, 2017Read more...

Today Designated as International Drug Users Remembrance Day by INPUD

The International Network of People who Use Drugs (INPUD) is a global peer-based organization that seeks to promote the health and defend the rights of people who use drugs. In a statement released today, INPUD dubs today, July 21, a day to “remember our community members, our loved ones, our friends, and our family members who have died as a result of the so-called war on drugs.” “People who use drugs are dying in increasing numbers,” the statement continues. “There are more than 200,000 drug-related deaths a year. Overdose deaths contribute to between a third and a half of all drug-related...

July 21, 2017Read more...

DanceSafe Now Offering Fentanyl Testing Strips

July 18, 2017 - Fentanyl is a short-acting synthetic opiate that is now being used as an adulterant in substances such as heroin, cocaine, and MDMA. Due to its high potency, it has caused numerous deaths on unsuspecting victims. In response to the rising death toll caused by fentanyl-laced drugs, DanceSafe and the University of California San Francisco have conducted a study assessing five different immunoassay fentanyl test strips for their effectiveness at detecting fentanyl and its various analogs at concentrations typically found in street drugs. Although none of the five strips detected all of the fentanyl-related analogs, and one Chinese-manufactured...

July 18, 2017Read more...

D.A.R.E to Resist Poor Drug Education

“D.A.R.E. - To Keep Kids Off Drugs.” If you were a kid growing up in the 80’s or 90’s, you remember this slogan. You might also remember going through the program in your elementary school, where police officers would come speak in your classroom and tell you to “Just Say No” to drugs. After years of evidence demonstrating the program’s ineffectiveness in actually reducing drug use among teens and adolescents, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has called for a reinstatement of the program. The D.A.R.E. program was founded in 1983 as a partnership between the Los Angeles Police Department and LA...

July 17, 2017Read more...