Students partner with testing manufacturer to provide free harm reduction tools to youth
Luis Montoya
luis@ssdp.org
Cameron Scally
Cameron@dosetest.com
March 28, 2022— Students for Sensible Drug Policy and DoseTest are partnering to expand access to drug checking kits and drug checking services for young people who use drugs and their peers across the United States. The partnership was borne out of a mutual desire to make these potentially life saving harm reduction tools accessible to the people who need them most.
The combined effort will leverage the drug checking resources of DoseTest and the people power of SSDP to educate young people about drug checking kits, remove financial barriers to access kits, and mobilize young people to decriminalize drug checking where it’s still penalized.
Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) is the largest global youth-led network dedicated to ending the War on Drugs. Founded in 1998, SSDP is comprised of thousands of members in hundreds of communities around the globe, including 100+ chapters in the United States. SSDP mobilizes and empowers young people to participate in the political process, pushing for sensible policies with a focus on those that directly impact students and youth.
DoseTest was founded in 2016 with a simple aim: making the basics of harm reduction available as widely and cheaply as possible. Since then, a multidisciplinary and multinational team has developed to provide materials and resources through any avenue DoseTest can find, always with an eye to developing new tactics for new challenges. In just the last year, DoseTest has delivered 3 million tests-worth to over 100 countries, as well as working with charities, mutual aid organizations and local governments to face the challenges of North America’s fentanyl epidemic.
“Everyone deserves the ability to make informed choices about what drugs they take and this effort will give access to that knowledge for every college student in the country.” Said SSDP Operations Director Luis Montoya. ”Now we need our legislators to legally respect the right to know basic information that prevents overdoses and to adopt sensible harm reduction policies for all people who use drugs.”
“The community of Albany has reached an uptick in the use of drugs. Some individuals [who are] not aware of cross contamination or laced drugs fall victim to drug overdoses…” said, Nicole Novondo, “access to drug [checking] kits opens up a safe space for drug users to feel that the community around them offers a strong support system. Most importantly allowing the possibility of a life being saved.”
