KnowYourStuffNZ addresses the lack of factual, proven information available to drug users about the substances they intend to take by providing drug checking and drug related information at festivals, events, and city clinics.

Prohibition has left the regulation and quality control of drugs up to the black market. People purchase drugs presuming they are a certain type of substance, but in reality many are cut or substituted entirely with different substances which have the potential to harm or kill. Additionally, the stigma surrounding drug-taking leads to people to hide their use, use alone, or use without accurate information about the risks of the substance they are taking and how to keep themselves safe and healthy.

KnowYourStuffNZ’s service includes:

– providing factual information about drugs and drug use in general, signs of excessive or dependent use to look out for, and information about where to get help for drug related problems.

– testing substances using reagents and infra-red spectroscopy to discern the content of a sample.

– providing accurate information about specific substances detected within a sample, including active and toxic dose, expected duration, reasons to not take a substance, what to expect psychologically, how to have a safer experience, and symptoms to look out for that signal danger.

People who use drugs occasionally are just as vulnerable to the dangers of the illicit market as regular users. They risk their substance being either substituted or adulterated with something dangerous. 

KnowYourStuffNZ specialises in events and festivals, but testing services can be arranged on an individual basis. Please contact us for details.

Our testing methods – Reagents and FT-IR Spectroscopy

KnowYourStuffNZ is made up of dedicated volunteers and a small team of staff, and operates independently but with the support of many partners. The technology and methods we use are helping to develop global best practice in this evolving field. We share our processes and data with overseas testing services such as The Loop in the UK, DanceSafe in the USA, and CanTest in Australia. All KnowYourStuffNZ’s volunteers are trained in the use of the technology and interpretation of results.

Initial testing is carried out using a Bruker ALPHA – a Fourier transform infra-red spectrometer. This uses infra-red light to generate a characteristic absorption spectrum for each sample, allowing the detection of drugs, adulterants, and mixtures.

Further testing is carried out using reagents such as Marquis and Mandelin, as well as Ehrlich’s for detecting LSD. These reagents are available in New Zealand through The Hemp Store. We recommend the DanceSafe instructions for interpreting reagent tests.

Together, these methods allow us to identify over 95% of substances that people bring us. When the contents of a sample can’t be determined using our technology, we may request to hang onto a small amount of sample to send away for testing at an approved laboratory using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. 

We minimize risk to clients

Accurate information about sample content is key to the success of KnowYourStuffNZ’s harm reduction work. The risk of inaccuracy is reduced in the following ways:

– Testers are trained in use of testing techniques, talked through the operating protocols and given reference copies of operational guidelines and testing protocol

– Testers always work in teams of two to cross-check observed reactions and test interpretation

– Up to date reference charts for reagents are obtained from Dancesafe.  Bunk Policereagent test reference videos may be used as a secondary reference.

– Bruker spectrometer software includes the TICTAC spectral library. This is the most up-to-date and globally-respected psychoactive substance reference available, updated regularly. There are several other libraries which are used to cross-reference and obtain spectra for novel substances. 

– Technical support is provided by ESR as well as continual improvement in drug checking processes and detection techniques.

Limitations of the service:

– KnowYourStuffNZ can only provide information about content, not purity. Our testing methods are accurate to about 5% of the total sample meaning that purity cannot be established.

– Reagent testing is subjective and can only identify the most obvious ingredient in a sample. Many drug suppliers are now familiar with reagent testing and may include a small amount of the presumed substance in a sample to fool modern reagent tests.

– KnowYourStuffNZ cannot identify all harmful impurities.

– Results are not a guarantee of content but an indication.

– Results are recorded and conveyed in these terms: “This result is consistent with the presence of XYZ” rather than “This is XYZ.”

– Harm reduction information describing the risks associated with identified substance(s) is offered to each client.  This information is sourced from respected drug information databases (Tripsit and PsychonautWiki ). 

Participants are reminded that the safest option is always to not take a substance.
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KnowYourStuffNZ came into being in 2015 when it emerged that new psychoactive chemicals and adulterated substances were being sold as more well-known and trusted recreational drugs.

In many cases, these more dangerous substances led to difficult and harmful experiences. Medics at events along with other community members agreed that it was only a matter of time before someone died.

Wendy Allison decided to do something about this. The options for that something included:

1. Do nothing and accept deaths as a side effect of drug use
2. Police drugs at events to try to prevent use
3. Provide harm reduction services

For obvious reasons, the first option was quickly discarded. After discussing the second option and observing this method in action overseas, we concluded that it would prove impossible due to cost, logistics, and the potential to increase harm rather than reducing it. There continues to be substantial evidence that such zero-tolerance policies do not stop drug use.

We settled on harm reduction. Harm reduction is a set of practical strategies and ideas aimed at reducing the negative consequences associated with drug use. Harm reduction acknowledges that people will choose to take drugs regardless of the law. We reduce harms associated with that use by providing factual, proven information to drug users about the substances they intend to take so that they can understand the risks and make safer decisions.

Out of Wendy’s work grew KnowYourStuffNZ.

We have now been testing substances at events since 2015, and in that time has expanded from working with just one event to a nationwide organisation that provided harm reduction services at events and public clinics across Aotearoa. In that time, we have gathered data that shows that instead of condoning drug use as is often feared, drug checking in fact reduces drug use and its associated harms.  See Why it works for more information.

Our data is now being used to inform policy not only in New Zealand but internationally.

We are now closed for volunteer applications as we prepare for the summer season.

Our next volunteer intake will be after the 2025/26 summer festival season – likely March or April 2026.

To be added to the waitlist, please email us at volunteer@knowyourstuff.nz with a little bit about you, including what region you’re based in. 

KnowYourStuffNZ welcomes anyone that wants to offer their time and get involved in helping reduce drug-related harm in Aotearoa.

You’ll join a growing community of volunteers working to give people information that can save their lives.

Learn more about volunteering with KnowYourStuffNZ 

Drug checking is effective for reducing drug harm as it can change the minds and behaviours of people who have already decided to use drugs.

Providing information to users allows them to make informed choices about the substances they take, including whether or not to take drugs at all. Drug checking works in the same way that quality control and labeling works to reduce harm from other consumer products.

KnowYourStuffNZ focuses on reducing harm and maintains that death is not an acceptable consequence for breaking drug laws. We reduce risk of death from drug use by ensuring people know what substance they have and the risks associated with it so they can make an informed choice, rather than taking a gamble with drugs and therefore their lives.

It has been well established both in New Zealand and internationally that drug checking does not encourage drug use.

Pragmatism over judgement

KnowYourStuffNZ advocates a pragmatic approach to drug use and does not take a moral stance. Our work is based on evidence and current best practice.  We acknowledge that our clients are adults and will make choices for themselves based on their own values and morals – our aim is to ensure that those choices are made with the best possible information.

(We do not provide services to under-18s.)

Informing choices

The risks associated with drug use range from very minor (caffeine) to potentially deadly (nitazenes). Knowing and understanding the risks of taking a drug is only possible when you know which drug you are taking. Many of the drugs used at events (such as MDMA and LSD)  pose a fairly low risk , but the adulterants and substitutes found in the illegal market often carry a much higher risk, which can be increased when unknowingly mixed with other substances like alcohol .

Over the years we have found that when we tell people that their drug of choice is either not what they thought it was, or contains additional substances to what they thought it was, more than half will then actively choose not to take it.  Up to 100% of people will choose to dispose of their substance if it is something particularly harmful, such as some types of synthetic cannabinoid.

Drug checking reduces potential harms

When people choose not to take drugs that are not what they were expecting, this demonstrates that potential harm is being averted. The amount of people refusing to take their drugs after they were tested and proved to be a different substance from what they thought is a fair indication of potential harm averted.

Anecdotally, when KnowYourStuffNZ has been checking drugs at events, drug-related hospitalisations and harmful episodes have been fewer than expected.  Additionally, we have been informed by medics that people have told them they didn’t take a substance because it had been tested at the event and it wasn’t what they thought it was.

Proof of success

When people find out the drug they have is not what they presumed, they are often willing to abstain from taking that drug. For our testing in the 2016/17 summer season, half of our clients chose not to take a substance that was not as presumed.

Intent to consume a drug after testing 2016/2017

Where people intended to take a drug, they gave reasons – for example the identified substance was still a desirable one or they had taken the identified substance before. When the identified substance was more dangerous than expected (such as NBOMe when they expected LSD), a much larger fraction decided not to take that substance, up to 100% in some cases, such as synthetic cannabinoids.

Visit our Client Survey results for more info on why drug checking works. 

Our Values

We uphold the agency and dignity of people who use drugs

We believe that people will make the best decisions for themselves when they’re given complete and honest information. It’s not up to us to tell someone else what to do with their own bodies or judge them for the decisions they make.

We are part of the communities we serve

Nothing about us without us. We are part of communities that include people who take drugs. We know what works for people who use drugs because of our involvement.

We create open, honest, and supportive relationships 

People trust us because we are trustworthy. We keep their confidentiality and treat them like adults. We don’t ask anyone to do anything that we wouldn’t do ourselves.

We are changing the narrative about drugs and people who use drugs

We are changing how people talk about drugs to remove stigma and create more honest discussions that lead to less drug harm. We do this through our volunteers, with our clients, and in our wider advocacy.

Good intentions are nothing without effective action

The most important aspect of harm reduction is that people do it. Having great ideas about how people can keep themselves safer are only helpful we act on those ideas.