Welcome
KnowYourStuffNZ is a community organisation of volunteers.
We are part of Aotearoa’s legal and publicly-funded drug checking programme, which also includes the Needle Exchange and the New Zealand Drug Foundation, to provide drug related harm reduction services at events around New Zealand, including drug checking.
The service is free of charge to clients.
Services
What We Do
Here you’ll find how to get the latest press releases and the contact details for our media team lead
Here you’ll find info about how to book KnowYourStuffNZ for your event, and important legal information.
DRUG INFORMATION SECTION
This is where we keep the Pill Library, the annual reports of what we’ve found, and the latest news.
What happens when I get my drugs checked?
- You come and see us at either an event or a static testing clinic in our private testing area. Only people you feel comfortable with are allowed in the checking area with you. Nobody is allowed to take photos inside the checking area.
- You give us a sample of what you need checked. We only need a wee pile the size of a match head for the reagents, and another slightly bigger pile for the FTIR spectrometer.
- Depending on your substance we will do either one or two tests to find out what your substance has in it: And FTIR infrared spectrometer test, and/or a reagent test.
- Once we know what’s in your substance, we give you harm reduction advice about what we’ve found. You can make an informed decision about what you want to do from there.
KnowYourStuffNZ by the numbers
3
years operating legally
(8 years operating in total, but y’know)
10,890 +
samples tested at 120+ events
900 +
volunteers
2,100 +
Dangerous substances found pretending to be other substances
Who we work with
We are part of Aotearoa’s legal and publicly-funded drug checking programme, which also includes the Needle Exchange and the New Zealand Drug Foundation
We also share information with High Alert through the Drug Information and Alerts New Zealand (DIANZ).
At events we talk with medics and psychedelic first aid organisations like DeepSpace to let them know what we’ve found. This helps them know how to help people in difficult situations.
“I think there are good grounds for it, as I say, I support it”
“People – like Wendy and the dozens of incred volunteers, and festival organisers who want to protect their punters – no longer risk arrest for offering this life saving service.”
“This service saves lives”
Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand, former UNDP administrator