Drug checking

Drug checking, also known as drug safety testing, is the direct analysis of a physical substance - such as a powder, pill, or liquid - to determine its chemical composition. While clinical drug tests analyze biological specimens like urine or blood to detect consumption, drug checking examines the product itself to identify its actual contents.

Drug checking evaluates substance purity and requires laboratory confirmation

• Drug checking identifies three core properties: the identity of the substance, its purity or potency, and the presence of any unexpected adulterants.
• Rapid point-of-care methods, including reagent kits or infrared spectroscopy, provide only presumptive results and often fail to detect complex mixtures or trace impurities.
• Definitive confirmation of results requires professional laboratory analysis using chromatography and mass spectrometry, such as GC-MS or LC-HRMS.

Independent drug checking differs from vendor certificates and simple test kits

A common misunderstanding is that a vendor's Certificate of Analysis (CoA) is equivalent to independent drug checking. However, a vendor CoA is a self-reported document provided by the seller, whereas true drug checking involves an independent, user-initiated analysis of the actual product.

Drug checking is also frequently confused with simple reagent kits. While kits offer a basic screening, reliable substance analysis relies on advanced laboratory instruments to provide a complete and accurate profile. For specialized applications like peptide analysis, basic tests are insufficient; high-resolution methods such as LC-HRMS are required to accurately resolve closely related impurities.

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