{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,11]],"date-time":"2026-10-11T22:14:45Z","timestamp":1791756885963,"version":"4.3.4"},"reference-count":44,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,2,22]],"date-time":"2021-02-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1613952000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychiatry"],"abstract":"<jats:p><jats:bold>Introduction:<\/jats:bold> Drug checking as a part of drug harm-reduction strategies represents an essential aspect of public health policies. It focuses on rapid identification of drugs that individuals intend to use during night events, in order to implement health-protective behaviors. Chemical drug analysis techniques vary considerably, from simple colorimetric reagents to advanced forensic methods such as gas chromatography\/mass spectrometry (GC\/MS).<\/jats:p><jats:p><jats:bold>Materials and Methods:<\/jats:bold> In 2019, drug-check services were offered at some night events in Umbria (Central Italy). One hundred and twenty attendees directly delivered unidentified substances to a harm-reduction worker, who collected a few milligrams of the substances on ceramic plates and added a drop of colorimetric reagent. Multiple reagents were used to increase the diagnostic capacity of a substance, which may react with a specific drug or a few drugs. Later, a fraction of the samples was analyzed by GC\/MS. The concordance of the results obtained using these two methodologies and the intended behaviors of consumers after being informed of the test result was evaluated.<\/jats:p><jats:p><jats:bold>Results:<\/jats:bold> We analyzed 120 samples by colorimetric test: 32 MDMA, 25 ketamine, 10 amphetamine, 11 cocaine, 8 heroin, and 4 LSD samples. The results were inconclusive for 29 samples. The GS\/MS analysis confirmed MDMA in 84%, ketamine in 78%, amphetamine in 91%, cocaine in 92%, heroin in 88%, and LSD in 100% of the samples. The results of samples with inconclusive results were as follows: 2, MDMA; 7, ketamine; 2, amphetamine; 2, cocaine; 2, heroin; 2, mephedrone; 6, mixes; 1, debris; and 5, adulterants as the main component. Twenty-one of 29 participants reported that they had no intention of consuming the unidentified substance.<\/jats:p><jats:p>Discussion: The high percentage of individuals who claimed no intention of consuming the unidentified drugs indicates that drug checking is viable as a part of drug harm-reduction strategies. Overall, colorimetric reagents showed a good performance with regard to samples being unadulterated (LSD) or minimal in quantity, but failed to identify mixtures of substances and the adulterants present in them. Therefore, the use of more discriminatory on-site methods such as Raman or infrared spectrometry is strongly recommended.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyt.2021.596895","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,2,22]],"date-time":"2021-02-22T05:31:50Z","timestamp":1613971910000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":33,"title":["Drug Checking as Strategy for Harm Reduction in Recreational Contests: Evaluation of Two Different Drug Analysis Methodologies"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"12","author":[{"given":"Martina","family":"Fregonese","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Andrea","family":"Albino","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Claudia","family":"Covino","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Alessio","family":"Gili","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mauro","family":"Bacci","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Alessia","family":"Nicoletti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Cristiana","family":"Gambelunghe","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,2,22]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","unstructured":"Health and Social Responses to Drug Problems: A European Guide.2017"},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"160","DOI":"10.1016\/j.drugpo.2019.09.017","article-title":"Adulterants and altruism: a qualitative investigation of \u201cdrug checkers\u201d in North America","volume":"74","author":"Palamar","year":"2019","journal-title":"Int. J. Drug Policy."},{"key":"B3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"107589","DOI":"10.1016\/j.drugalcdep.2019.107589","article-title":"Drug checking services at music festivals and events in a Canadian setting","volume":"205","author":"McCrae","year":"2019","journal-title":"Drug Alcohol Depend."},{"key":"B4","first-page":"1195","article-title":"Illnesses and deaths among persons attending an electronic dance-music festival \u2014 New York City, 2013","volume":"63","author":"Ridpath","year":"2014","journal-title":"Morb. Mortal. Wkly. Rep."},{"key":"B5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"24","DOI":"10.1016\/j.drugalcdep.2015.05.002","article-title":"Illicit drug use among rave attendees in a nationally representative sample of US high school seniors","volume":"152","author":"Palamar","year":"2015","journal-title":"Drug Alcohol Depend."},{"key":"B6","first-page":"594","article-title":"Club drugs: review of the \u201crave\u201d with a note of concern for the Indian scenario","volume":"133","author":"Chakraborty","year":"2011","journal-title":"Ind. J. Med. Res."},{"key":"B7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"617546","DOI":"10.1155\/2014\/617546","article-title":"Substance use in the club scene of Rome: a pilot study","volume":"2014","author":"Vento","year":"2014","journal-title":"Biomed. Res. Int."},{"key":"B8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"10364","DOI":"10.1039\/C5AY01899D","article-title":"A simple colorimetric kit for determination of ketamine hydrochloride in water samples","volume":"7","author":"Maddah","year":"2015","journal-title":"Anal. Methods."},{"key":"B9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"295","DOI":"10.1080\/02791072.2004.10400030","article-title":"Club drugs: reasons for and consequences of use","volume":"36","author":"Parks","year":"2004","journal-title":"J. Psychoactive Drugs."},{"key":"B10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1463","DOI":"10.1086\/503259","article-title":"Club drugs and HIV infection: a review","volume":"42","author":"Mayer","year":"2006","journal-title":"Clin. Infect. Dis."},{"key":"B11","unstructured":"RevadigarN\n            GuptaV\n          Substance Induced Mood Disorders - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf.2020"},{"key":"B12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"118","DOI":"10.1080\/08897077.2012.691446","article-title":"Psychotic symptoms of cocaine self-injectors in a harm reduction program","volume":"34","author":"Roncero","year":"2013","journal-title":"Subst. Abus."},{"key":"B13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1121","DOI":"10.1016\/j.pcl.2019.08.013","article-title":"Focus on adolescent use of club drugs and \u201cother\u201d substances","volume":"66","author":"Williams","year":"2019","journal-title":"Pediatr. Clin. North Am."},{"key":"B14","first-page":"1","volume-title":"European Drug Report","year":"2019"},{"key":"B15","unstructured":"National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)2020"},{"key":"B16","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"52","DOI":"10.1186\/s12954-017-0179-5","article-title":"An overview of forensic drug testing methods and their suitability for harm reduction point-of-care services","volume":"14","author":"Harper","year":"2017","journal-title":"Harm Reduct. J."},{"key":"B17","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"197","DOI":"10.20882\/adicciones.897","article-title":"Harm reduction program use, psychopathology and medical severity in patients with methadone maintenance treatment","volume":"30","author":"Mart\u00ednez-Luna","year":"2018","journal-title":"Adicciones."},{"key":"B18","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"121","DOI":"10.3390\/bs10080121","article-title":"Piloting the UK's first home-office-licensed pharmacist-led drug checking service at a community substance misuse service","volume":"10","author":"Guirguis","year":"2020","journal-title":"Behav. Sci."},{"key":"B19","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"420","DOI":"10.1111\/bcp.14231","article-title":"City checking: piloting the UK's first community-based drug safety testing (drug checking) service in 2 city centres","volume":"86","author":"Measham","year":"2020","journal-title":"Br. J. Clin. Pharmacol."},{"key":"B20","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"226","DOI":"10.1111\/dar.12576","article-title":"Pill testing or drug checking in Australia: acceptability of service design features","volume":"37","author":"Barratt","year":"2018","journal-title":"Drug Alcohol. Rev."},{"key":"B21","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1139","DOI":"10.1046\/j.1360-0443.2001.96811397.x","article-title":"Ecstasy pill testing: harm minimization gone too far?","volume":"96","author":"Winstock","year":"2001","journal-title":"Addiction."},{"key":"B22","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"395","DOI":"10.1111\/imj.14742","article-title":"Pill testing at music festivals \u2013 is it evidence-based harm reduction?","volume":"50","author":"Scott","year":"2020","journal-title":"Intern. Med. J."},{"key":"B23","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"41","DOI":"10.1186\/s13011-019-0229-y","article-title":"Seizures of illicit substances for personal use in two Italian provinces: analysis of trends by type and purity from 2008 to 2017","volume":"14","author":"Verri","year":"2019","journal-title":"Subst. Abus. Treat Prev. Policy."},{"key":"B24","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"188","DOI":"10.1002\/dta.1954","article-title":"Drug testing in Europe: monitoring results of the Trans European Drug Information (TEDI) project","volume":"9","author":"Brunt","year":"2017","journal-title":"Drug Test Anal."},{"key":"B25","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1567","DOI":"10.1080\/10826080701212428","article-title":"Monitoring ecstasy content in France: results from the National Surveillance System 1999-2004","volume":"42","author":"Giraudon","year":"2007","journal-title":"Subst. Use Misuse."},{"key":"B26","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"59","DOI":"10.1016\/j.drugpo.2018.10.001","article-title":"Drug checking as a potential strategic overdose response in the fentanyl era","volume":"62","author":"Laing","year":"2018","journal-title":"Int. J. Drug Policy."},{"key":"B27","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"906","DOI":"10.2174\/1570159X18666200413142632","article-title":"What about drug checking? systematic review and netnographic analysis of social media","volume":"18","author":"Guirguis","year":"2020","journal-title":"Curr. Neuropharmacol."},{"key":"B28","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1238","DOI":"10.1592\/phco.23.12.1238.32704","article-title":"Putting an ecstasy test Kit to the test: harm reduction or harm induction?","volume":"23","author":"Murray","year":"2003","journal-title":"Pharmacotherapy."},{"key":"B29","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"89","DOI":"10.1002\/dta.220","article-title":"Adulterants in illicit drugs: a review of empirical evidence","volume":"3","author":"Cole","year":"2011","journal-title":"Drug Test Anal."},{"key":"B30","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"53","DOI":"10.1016\/j.forsciint.2004.07.004","article-title":"Underground pill testing, down under","volume":"151","author":"Camilleri","year":"2005","journal-title":"Forensic Sci. Int."},{"key":"B31","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1056","DOI":"10.1177\/0269881117715596","article-title":"Who is \u201cMolly\u201d? MDMA adulterants by product name and the impact of harm-reduction services at raves","volume":"31","author":"Saleemi","year":"2017","journal-title":"J. Psychopharmacol."},{"key":"B32","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"485","DOI":"10.1002\/dta.2134","article-title":"Purity and adulterant analysis of some recent drug seizures in Italy","volume":"9","author":"Pichini","year":"2017","journal-title":"Drug Test Anal."},{"key":"B33","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"73","DOI":"10.1016\/j.forsciint.2016.02.033","article-title":"The cutting of cocaine and heroin: a critical review","volume":"262","author":"Bros\u00e9us","year":"2016","journal-title":"Forensic Sci. Int."},{"key":"B34","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"199","DOI":"10.1016\/j.forsciint.2018.12.016","article-title":"Determination of cutting agents in seized cocaine samples using GC\u2013MS, GC\u2013TMS and LC\u2013MS\/MS","volume":"295","author":"Fiorentin","year":"2019","journal-title":"Forensic Sci. Int."},{"key":"B35","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"12","DOI":"10.1111\/dar.13018","article-title":"Making drug policy in summer\u2014drug checking in Australia as providing more heat than light","volume":"39","author":"Ritter","year":"2020","journal-title":"Drug Alcohol Rev."},{"key":"B36","unstructured":"European Drug Report 2017: Trends and Developments.2017"},{"key":"B37","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"216","DOI":"10.1097\/00006565-200206000-00017","article-title":"Club drugs, smart drugs, raves, and circuit parties: an overview of the club scene","volume":"18","author":"Tong","year":"2002","journal-title":"Pediatr. Emerg. Care."},{"key":"B38","unstructured":"Mephedrone and alcohol interactions in humans1588\n            PapaseitE\n            P\u00e9rez-Ma\u00f1\u00e1C\n            de Sousa Fernandes PernaEB\n            OlestiE\n            MateusJ\n            KuypersKPC\n          10.3389\/fphar.2019.0158832063845Front. Pharmacol.102020"},{"key":"B39","unstructured":"Mephedrone and MDMA: a comparative review146740\n            MeadJ\n            ParrottA\n          10.1016\/j.brainres.2020.14674032087112Brain Res.17352020"},{"key":"B40","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"88","DOI":"10.1016\/j.drugpo.2019.07.007","article-title":"Evaluation of a drug checking service at a large scale electronic music festival in Portugal","volume":"73","author":"Valente","year":"2019","journal-title":"Int. J. Drug Policy."},{"key":"B41","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1113","DOI":"10.1080\/08870446.2011.613995","article-title":"The theory of planned behaviour: reactions and reflections","volume":"26","author":"Ajzen","year":"2011","journal-title":"Psychol. Heal."},{"key":"B42","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"189","DOI":"10.1016\/S0379-0738(99)00235-2","article-title":"Validation of twelve chemical spot tests for the detection of drugs of abuse","volume":"109","author":"O'Neal","year":"2000","journal-title":"Forensic Sci. Int."},{"key":"B43","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"12","DOI":"10.1186\/s12954-018-0216-z","article-title":"\u201cWorth the test?\u201d Pragmatism, pill testing and drug policy in Australia.","volume":"15","author":"Groves","year":"2018","journal-title":"Harm Reduct. J."},{"key":"B44","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"102","DOI":"10.1016\/j.drugpo.2018.11.001","article-title":"Drug safety testing, disposals and dealing in an English field: exploring the operational and behavioural outcomes of the UK's first onsite \u2018drug checking\u2019 service","volume":"67","author":"Measham","year":"2019","journal-title":"Int. J. Drug Policy."}],"container-title":["Frontiers in Psychiatry"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fpsyt.2021.596895\/full","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2021,2,22]],"date-time":"2021-02-22T05:32:00Z","timestamp":1613971920000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fpsyt.2021.596895\/full"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2021,2,22]]},"references-count":44,"alternative-id":["10.3389\/fpsyt.2021.596895"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/fpsyt.2021.596895","relation":{},"ISSN":["1664-0640"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1664-0640","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2021,2,22]]},"article-number":"596895"}}