Published
Thu, Aug 17, 2023, 08:00
- Between 30 and 50 percent of the samples tested have been given a "Warning" status.
A free and anonymous drug-testing programme in Berlin has been met with high demand.
Run by The State Institute for Forensic and Social Medicine, drugchecking.berlin has examined a total of 428 samples since launching in June, according to rbb. The drugs most frequently analysed include ecstasy, amphetamine, mephedrone, cocaine, ketamine and LSD. Results, which are given roughly three days after submission, found that between 30 and 50 percent of the samples tested merited a "Warning" status. This is given to drugs that are wrongly labelled or abnormally strong in composition, according to the drugchecking.berlin website.
Ulrike Scherling, facility manager at one of the three counselling centres doing the testing, said that Berliners "have a great interest in consuming healthily and less harmfully."
Recreational drugs were being tested regularly during the Love Parade heyday of the mid-'90s. It was here than an organisation called Eve & Rave began testing the composition of party drugs for the first time.