Urgent public health alerts about the presence of deadly substances in illicit drugs will be sent out within hours of a sample being tested at Queensland's first fixed-site drug checking service.
The landmark service in the Brisbane suburb of Bowen Hills opened on Friday, with experts warning of evidence the illicit drug market is becoming "more and more risky".
It's only the second permanent drug-checking service in Australia, behind one in Canberra.
"We're seeing a lot more contaminants turning up in unexpected places," said Cameron Francis, CEO of The Loop Australia, a not-for-profit organisation set up six years ago to deliver drug checking services.
It's an offshoot of The Loop in the United Kingdom, established by criminologist Professor Fiona Measham, who attended the Brisbane opening.
'Hunger for information'
Drug checking services allow people to have small samples of illicit drugs tested for free to see if they contain dangerous chemicals.
"We can test pretty much any pills and powders and liquids that people might present, so no matter what drugs they are," Mr Francis said.
"We're anticipating a pretty strong demand. We know there's a real hunger out there for information. People want to know what's in their drugs."
Mr Francis said Brisbane's CheQpoint Drug Checking Service would save lives.
Apart from the obvious benefit to individual drug users, he said it would allow health authorities to alert the wider community of particularly dangerous chemicals circulating in batches of illicit drugs.
"If we were to get something that's really high risk then we can get an alert published on social media channels … within two hours of us identifying that," Mr Francis said.
"We're partnering with Queensland Health and other non-government organisations to make sure we get that information out as quickly as we can."
Synthetic opioids fill heroin vacuum
The opening of the service comes amid worldwide fears about synthetic opioids, which are among the dangerous substances chemists at the Bowen Hills site will be testing for.
Professor Measham said the Taliban had stopped production of opium in Afghanistan since 2022, slashing international supplies of heroin.
She said synthetic opioids, such as nitazenes, were filling the vacuum.
"The National Crime Agency estimates that at least two people are dying every week from nitazenes in the UK," Professor Measham said, adding they were about 50 to 500 times stronger than heroin.
She said academic research into drug-checking services in the UK found 95 per cent of clients "had never spoken to a health professional about their drug use before".
"People who use drug-checking services generally are not in touch with drug services and so we can tap into younger and maybe less experienced drug users and bring them into services," she said.
"If the substance they bring isn't what they thought it was … we find that about two-thirds will throw it away and not take it, so we actively reduce drug use and reduce drug harm.
"If it is what they thought it was, we'll have that conversation about dosage. We've found that half of the people whose substance is what they thought it was, they take a lower dose in future.
"That's one of the ways you could be saving lives."
Mr Francis said that ideally, users of the service would be in and out within about 20 minutes.
He said chemists would only require a drug sample about the size of a match head for analysis.
Clients should not fear being targeted by police for attending the drug checking service.
"There's been a long-standing arrangement with Queensland Police Service to not interfere with these health and harm reduction services operating," Mr Francis said.
"Queensland police are actually really crucial to that health response."
Queensland Premier Steven Miles toured the drug checking site before it opened for the first time.
While he said police would continue to crack down on traffickers, the drug-checking site was all about harm minimisation.
"Young people, in particular, are using drugs as part of their partying," Mr Miles said.
"There will always be a level of drug use and so the more we can do to keep those people safe and put them into touch with services to support and help them with their health care, the more lives we can save."
The state government is investing almost $1 million to fund the delivery and evaluation of drug-checking services in Queensland during the next two years.
The Bowen Hills service will be open from 12:30 to 6pm on Fridays.
A second Queensland testing service will be established at a yet-to-be-confirmed site in the coming months.
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