People who use drugs in Toronto have long advocated for access to drug checking in an effort to reduce the harms associated with using drugs from the unregulated supply. In 2017, Health Canada responded, funding multiple drug checking services across the country with the primary goal of preventing overdose. This included funding a drug checking pilot in Toronto.
The report, titled What’s in Toronto’s Drug Supply?, is an initiative of Toronto’s drug checking service, and is the first of its kind in Canada.
The report amasses results from 543 samples for a variety of unregulated drugs checked by the service from its launch date on October 10, 2019 until March 31, 2020.
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Piloting and evaluating drug checking services in Toronto, Ontario
The pilot for Toronto’s Drug Checking Service, which checked and publicly reported on more than 10,000 samples between October 10, 2019, and June 30, 2023, was coordinated by the CDPE. While Toronto’s Drug Checking Service now operates from its own unit within MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions at St. Michael’s Hospital, a site of Unity Health Toronto, the CDPE continues to work collaboratively with and conduct scientific research on the program.
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Toronto's Drug Checking Service Website
Toronto's drug checking service has launched an interactive website! We will now publicly share regular information on Toronto’s unregulated drug supply, supporting more evidence-based harm reduction practices, policy, research, and care for people who use drugs.
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Drug checking use and interest among people who inject drugs in Toronto, Canada
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Emerging synthetic cannabinoids detected by a drug checking service in Toronto, Canada
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Diverse psychotropic substances detected in drug and drug administration equipment samples submitted to drug checking services in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, October 2019–April 2020
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Xylazine detected in unregulated opioids and drug administration equipment in Toronto, Canada: clinical and social implications
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What’s in Toronto’s drug supply? Results from samples checked by Toronto’s drug checking service: January 1 – December 31, 2020
Between January 1 and December 31, 2020, 1657 samples were checked using mass spectrometry technologies (gas- and liquid-chromatography). This report details the results from the analysis of those samples.
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Detection of Synthetic Cannabinoid Adulteration in the Unregulated Drug Supply in three Canadian Settings
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As a harm reduction intervention available in Europe since the 1990s, DCS provide information on the composition of drugs to their clients in order to facilitate more informed drug-related decision-making and to increase the capacity of individuals to avoid ingesting unanticipated toxic substances, which can lead to overdose and death.
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Drug Checking Services for People Who Use Drugs: A Systematic Review
Given the growing availability of drug checking services and interest in their impacts, we conducted a systematic review to investigate the (a) influence of drug checking services on behaviour of people who use drugs, (b) monitoring of drug markets by drug checking services, and (c) outcomes related to models of drug checking services.
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