Handheld Raman Spectroscopy in the First UK Home Office Licensed Pharmacist-Led Community Drug Checking Service.

ABSTRACT: Across the world, the interest in point-of-care drug checking as a harm-reduction intervention is growing. This is an attempt to improve intelligence about current drug trends and reduce drug-related morbidity and mortality. In the UK, drug-related harm is increasing exponentially year after year. As such, specialist community treatment services are exploring new methods to improve engagement with people who use drugs (PWUD), who may require support for their problematic drug use. This need has driven the requirement to pilot an on-site, time-responsive, readily available drug-checking service at point-of-support centres. In this study, we piloted the UK's first Home Office-licensed drug-checking service that was embedded into a community substance-misuse service and had all on-site analys

SUBMITTER: Mullin A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10049009 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature