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Brian Coney
7 June 2023, 13:00

Free drug checking service now available in Berlin

Participants can expect results after three days

Free drug checking service now available in Berlin

A free and anonymous drug-checking service is now available in Berlin.

According to a new report by German news outlet rbb, people in the city can have drugs their tested free of charge, anonymously and legally in three advice centres. Germany's Senate Department for Health exclusively informed rbb of the move.

The report mentions that the project, which is called Drug Checking, allows interested parties to have "party drugs such as cannabis, ecstasy, speed, coke and LSD checked for their composition and purity."

Berlin.de, the official website of Berlin, reported the news on 6th June: "Consumers of drugs can now have their purchased substances tested free of charge in Berlin. After years of discussions and preparations, the so-called drug checking project, which aims to analyse ingredients and detect impurities, has begun. This was announced by the Senate Department for Health on Tuesday."

The project is the result of years of planning and several weeks of testing. Facility manager Ulrike Scherling said: "Berlin revelers also travel internationally, they know this from other cities and have a great interest in consuming healthily and less harmfully."

According to the Berlin health administration, samples from the project will be analysed at the State Institute for Forensic and Social Medicine and sent to counseling centres. The users can then query the result around three days after submitting the samples via phone or in person.

The development comes a year on from Berghain sharing resources for harm-reduction practices and guidelines for clubgoers in response to reports of drug and needle spiking at the venue and others. 

The UK’s first regular drug checking service launched in Bristol last May. From 2021, revisit DJ Mag's longform feature on how drug harm minimisation is more important for UK clubs than ever.