How it works

Our easy-to-use kits allow you to collect a drug sample using a pinhead of powder, a sliver of a pill, or a used cotton. Our machines are super sensitive, so we can also run analyses off of residue sticking to the inside of baggies. You return the kit to us, we run it in the lab, and you can check the results here on this website. It takes a week (or less) to run the samples once we get them in the mail. Rush service available during outbreaks.

The sample collection vial contains 2 mLs of methyl cyanide (acetonitrile), which is an organic solvent that renders the sample unusable. This allows us to offer the service through the mail.

These are our terms and conditions.

 

Using the kit

Here’s a quick video on how to collect the sample.

But we also know that putting chemical names into health context is challenging. We are more than happy to talk with (and learn from) our service users about trends, interpretation, and ways to minimize health harms. To help, we have established partnerships with toxicology, chemical engineering, pharmacology, and veterinary and human medical experts at UNC, NC State, and Duke.

Our service

We are a national service for public health organizations.

We operate on a per sample price. We are non-profit, so can provide services at-cost to health departments, clinics, and universities.

We have discounted rates for harm reduction programs ($20/sample requested donation).

And we provide services free to drug user unions.

Contact us for kits

The One Thing We Require

Every organization using our service must have a way to get results back to the people who provided the sample.

Read why this is important.

We only provide services to organizations. If you are an individual looking for drug checking, head over to Erowid/DrugsData.org.

Our Lab

A Thermo Exactive gas chromatography-mass spectrometer (GC-MS) is used for analysis, housed in the Department of Chemistry at UNC. The instrument is unique in that it provides both gas chromatography separations, as well as high resolution/accurate mass measurements. This allows chemical formula confirmation of opioids, byproducts, and fillers in the samples. This platform allows for a more sensitive analysis with substance identification that is definitive.

 
 

Chapel Hill

Office: Injury Prevention Research Center @ 725 MLK Jr. Blvd., CB 7505, Chapel Hill, NC 27599 USA

Laboratory: Caudill Labs @ 131 South Road on the UNC Campus

Phone
(919) 966-5725

Partners & Funders

 

  • Key partners for this effort include the North Carolina Survivors Union, Brandeis University and the University of North Carolina Injury Prevention Research Center.

    We are grateful to the Alliance for Collaborative Drug Checking (ACDC) for being such an amazing community of practice we can turn to for support.

    The NC Survivors Union is a totally awesome self-support group of people with lived experience of drug use, operating within a drop-in center and harm reduction program in Greensboro, North Carolina.

  • This project is funded by the Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts. Thanks, FORE!!

    https://forefdn.org/

    Studies at the Opioid Data Lab are conducted by independent researchers and do not necessarily represent the views of funders or partners.

    The GCMS instrument was funded through a NIH grant to the Department of Chemistry.

  • This project has been reviewed by the University of North Carolina Office of Research Ethics and deemed to be not to be human subjects research.

Donations

  • Help us out.

    Because overdose deaths are increasing, we provide free services to drug user unions, and greatly discounted rates to harm reduction programs.

    Others can can use our service at-cost, which is much cheaper than commercial labs.

    Suggested donation is $20 per sample. We are a non-profit educational institution, and 100% of donations go to paying for kits, shipping, and lab expenses.

    Support drug checking services