KnowYourStuffNZ is grateful to receive public funding to support our drug checking service, announced today by the Minister of Health.
Aotearoa New Zealand is the first nation to have fully-legal and publicly funded drug checking. We look forward to continuing our service at festivals and public clinics this summer and on. We also appreciate that this funding supports other drug checking services that are addressing drug harms in the wider community.
The expanded service capacity provided by this funding, alongside philanthropic donations and fees from events, means that we are making drug checking available at more festivals and public clinics. This increases our impact and the breadth of people that we can serve.
New Zealand goes into this summer with more drug checking than ever before. We expect to attend over fifteen festivals as well as six or more public clinics per month. We can provide this service cost-effectively thanks to our passionate volunteers and our dedicated team as well as the public support that the Minister has confirmed.