Can one even get stuff not laced with it these days?
As a casual outside observer I thought no. In which case test strips are less useful
As a casual outside observer I thought no. In which case test strips are less useful
I am aware, in passing, of the purity of club drugs. I mean, theoretically. Totally in the abstract, in case you’re a DEA plant.
It heavily depends on what, and where. In my…research…
Street-level opiates? I honestly have no idea, besides what I hear in the media. Not my bag.
Cocaine? It’s rare, but it happens, and it seems to be ramping up in scale, unfortunately. And more realistically, it’s contaminated with significant amounts of filler, including lidocaine to give you that mouth tingle.
Ketamine? Nah. Either pretty darn pure, or just cut with filler. (Well…mostly nah, I am pretty sure a friend got some cut with PCP one time.)
Ecstasy/molly (which is such a semantic jumble): rare, but it happens. But more likely, instead of the MDMA you want, it’s MDA, or some other substituted phenethylamine…or just sucrose as filler, and it does nothing at all.
Other more obscure club drugs, such as the stuff people claim is 2C-B? Rare, but plausible, and there was a rash of that in California recently.
Addiction is a powerful compulsion, but so is safety: an addict (or someone who isn't yet an addict) might choose not to use a particular batch if they have access to test strips. Even if they do choose to use: access to test strips allows them to plan for other harm reduction activities.
My drug awareness extends little beyond watching The Wire, but I'd guess users might test before purchasing or be more likely to work with dealers who would accommodate testing. In theory, at least.
It's all a multi-faceted problem and providing tools seems smart to me. It's remotely akin to being distressed about abortion but not keen on sex education or providing birth control. Attack the issues from all angles.
In other countries, yes. Australia's heroin supply is still basically just heroin, and extremely high purity, even on the street, interestingly.
While fentanyl does exist here, it's not that common. I cannot give a good reason as to why. It's interesting.
This was because importation was difficult, making any imported product vastly more expensive than what you could make yourself.
These days the bulk of the heroin in the country is brought in from Asia, controlled by Chinese and Vietnamese crime syndicates.
So I would be shocked if it was anywhere near as easy to get drugs in to Australia as it is the US, let alone easier.
Yes, even more so than the US frankly. Our border is difficult to get black market goods through.
It's also why heroin is nearly 10x the cost here in Australia, of course.