Impact Canada has launched a challenge to improve on drug checking technology to allow the community of people who use drugs and those who support them to make more informed decisions based on the composition of a drug and to reduce harm. Main Street Project’s Executive Director, Rick Lees, is a member of the jury for this challenge.
Taken from Impact Canada’s website, the challenge statement is to: Create a rapid, accurate, easy to use, and low-cost testing device or instrument that can be used with minimal training and preparation work.
Those who benefit from this challenge are:
- People who use drugs, to allow them to make decisions that may reduce their risk of overdose
- Peer support workers and people who work at supervised consumption and overdose prevention sites
- Emergency responders
You can learn more about the drug checking technology challenge here.