CHEQPOINT TO OPEN SECOND PILL-TESTING CLINIC AT THE GOLD COAST AFTER BRISBANE TRIAL

Following the success of a pill-testing clinic for drug users in Brisbane, Queensland will open a second clinic at the Gold Coast in July.

The CheQpoint drug testing clinic opened in April this year as part of a harm minimisation strategy intended to reduce drug deaths.

The not-for-profit is funded by Queensland Health in collaboration with QuIHN and QuIVAA, two groups that represent the interests of people who use drugs.

The weekly clinic allows users to anonymously get their drugs safety tested without being reported to the police.

In the first month of operation, the weekly Brisbane clinic screened 51 psychoactive drugs and 29 steroids.

An analysis of the first month of results showed about 69 per cent of drugs were found to contain only what was advertised.

Chemist Dhayaalini Nadarajan said many people would otherwise have no way of knowing for sure what their drugs contained.

The University of Queensland researcher said many of these drugs were bought anonymously off the internet.

"Most of them are curious about what's in the drug because some of the drugs are bought through the dark web and through Telegram," Ms Nadarajan said.

"Most of the drugs are what they think they are, but sometimes we have very surprising results."

One sample of MDMA was found to be cut with 4-CMC, a powerful stimulant that can be dangerous when taken together with MDMA.

One batch of methamphetamine actually turned out to be Epsom salts, while one unknown sample turned out to be merely a mixture of starch, caffeine, and paracetamol.

The clinic provides research data to the University of Queensland's wastewater study and Griffith University's performance-enhancing drug study.

It is run through The Loop, a not-for-profit organisation of chemists, health workers, and researchers in the emerging drug-checking field.

Keeping the dealers honest

Cameron Francis, chief executive at The Loop, said the clinic would discourage dealers from cutting their drugs with dangerous chemicals.

"We know from overseas when drug-checking services are widely available, it starts to shape the entire drug market," Mr Francis said.

"We know we have substances in Queensland at the moment, such as in 2016 on the Gold Coast where there was a series of mass overdoses and fatalities.

"That particular compound is still circulating to this day, and that's probably because we don't have widespread drug checking."

Mr Francis said the clinic also provided education to users around harm minimisation and what dosages were dangerous.

He said many visitors to the clinic did not know they had been taking dangerously high dosages or the dangers of mixing different drugs.

CheQpoint conducted its first musical festival pill testing in May where it screened 230 drug samples.

The clinic is open in Bowen Hills on Fridays between 12:30pm and 6pm.

ABC Brisbane reached out to Queensland Health Minister Shannon Fentiman for comment.