Safer Tripping: Serotonergic Psychedelics and Drug Checking. Submission and Detection Rates, Potential Harms, and Challenges for Drug Analysis

Introduction

Hirschfeld and colleagues situate this review within the expanding role of drug checking (DC) as both a harm-reduction intervention and a market-monitoring tool. DC services allow people to anonymously submit samples for chemical analysis and typically pair results with brief counselling; they have historically focused on stimulants such as MDMA, amphetamine and cocaine but face a more complex illicit market with a rising diversity of substances. The authors note renewed scientific and public interest in serotonergic psychedelics (SPs) — including classic compounds such as LSD, psilocybin, DMT and mescaline — alongside the emergence of many novel synthetic SPs (novel psychoactive substances, NPS) whose pharmacology and toxicity are often poorly characterised. The review sets out to determine the relevance of SPs in current DC practice by examining peer-reviewed reports that provide original data on submission or detection of SPs to DC services. Specifically, the investigators sought to quantify the presence and proportion of SPs among submitted samples, to describe adulterations and analogues detected, and to discuss the physical and psychological harms associated with SPs as well as analytical challenges for DC services. The emphasis is on how DC can contribute to reducing SP-related harms given the limitations of many existing on-site analytical methods.