In episode four of our Community-based Solutions for Substance Use Challenges season, Just Science sits down with Dr. Nabarun Dasgupta, Pharmacoepidemiologist and Senior Scientist in the University of North Carolina (UNC) Injury Prevention Research Center, and Erin Tracy, Research Chemist in the UNC injury Prevention Research Center, to discuss their unique approach to providing drug-checking services on a broad scale.

To address and prevent overdose deaths, it is crucial that local public health and harm reduction groups can check what substances are being used in a community, so that they can make informed decisions about local services, policy, and education. The UNC Street Drug Analysis Lab has made these important drug checking services more widely accessible by developing mail-in drug checking kits, which allow organizations to collect their own samples to submit for lab analysis and provide anonymized results back. Listen along as Dr. Dasgupta and Erin discuss types of drug checking technology, navigating the legal and logistical challenges of mailing street drug samples, and the positive impact of their drug checking program.