KnowYourStuff manager Casey Spearin Photo: Leah Hollingworth
A drug-checking group is reminding concertgoers this New Year party season that it offers a free, legal and confidential service.
KnowYourStuff will be at the AUM New Years Festival, Northern Bass, Twisted Frequency and Rhythm and Alps in Wānaka, while the Drug Foundation will be at Gisborne's Rhythm and Vines.
KnowYourStuff spokesperson Casey Spearin said one in 10 drugs on the black market were not what they were sold as.
"We recommend that anyone who is planning on taking drugs this summer tries to get them checked before they do consume if possible.
"It's a good idea to get your drugs checked even if you've purchased from that person before and trust them, because you know, there can be changes anywhere along the supply chain."
Spearin said there was concern about synthetic cathinones ('bath salts', for example) being sold as MDMA (ecstasy).
And sometimes buyers got more than they might have been expecting, putting them at serious risk of hospitalisation or death.
"Another thing that we always tend to recommend people looking out for is high-dose pills. Often people are buying… ecstasy pills, and we do see these coming through with multiple doses of MDMA, you know, sometimes two to three doses.
"I think there was one found that had nine or more doses in it."
There had also been an uptake in the use of cocaine and ketamine, she said - some of it not the real thing.
Spearin said drug testing was free, anonymous, confidential and legal.
A temporary law legalising drug checking was made permanent in 2021. Then-Health Minister Andrew Little said evidence showed pill-testing kept people safe, intercepting potentially dangerous substances before being consumed.
The bill had support across Parliament, except from National, which opposed it.
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