Dr. Nabarun Dasgupta, Senior Scientist at IPRC and Gillings Innovation Fellow at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, is leading the development of systems to detect and issue public warnings about dangerous adulterants in street drugs. With funding from the Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts (FORE), Dr. Dasgupta will work with several colleagues at UNC and community-based harm reduction programs across North Carolina to develop processes for chemical drug testing and systems to notify the public about potentially contaminated drugs.
Deaths from opioid overdose have been on the rise in recent years, and overdose deaths have surged even more during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data suggests that the surge may largely be due to dangerous substances such as fentanyl mixed in street drugs, often without the user’s knowledge and with a potency much stronger and more hazardous than the user is aware. As overdoses rise and many people who use drugs are hospitalized for conditions linked to street drugs cut with other substances, drug checking and systems to alert the public about potential adulterants is vital for harm reduction. “Forensic chemistry has been used in evidence in court for drug cases for decades, but it’s time for us in public health to use the same technology to prevent harm,” Dasgupta said in a video from the Opioid Data Lab, which the study team is a part of. A harm reduction approach promotes the health and dignity of people who use drugs and helps connect people with care and resources such as syringe exchange programs and information to reduce health risks associated with drug use. Harm reduction has been shown to be more effective than punitive drug policies at reducing negative health outcomes.
Currently Dasgupta and Mary Figgatt, a doctoral student at the UNC Gillings Department of Epidemiology, lead drug-checking work using mass spectrometry machines to develop new methods to track and stay ahead of changes in North Carolina’s drug supply. They plan to work with seven community-based harm reduction programs across North Carolina to conduct a street drug assessment, which will include using machine learning techniques. All of their lab methods and statistical methods will be shared on OpioidData.org. Their goal is to release open-source chemistry protocols and methods so that other university labs are able to test their drug supply and work with harm reduction organizations to provide timely information about drug safety back to people who use drugs. “These techniques empower people who use drugs to make informed decisions about what they put in their bodies, and reduce the most devastating physical harms,” Dasgupta shared.
The study team also includes Dr. Allison Lazard, E. Reese Felts Jr. Distinguished Associate Professor in the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media. Dr. Lazard will develop methods to deliver quick and actionable drug warnings about potential safety risks in North Carolina’s drug supply. The team’s work will focus on effective health communication that avoids potential pitfalls and unintended consequences, such as potentially leading people to believe that a particularly powerful drug is a benefit. They plan to work with artists around the county to create illustrations, text, and other strategies, which will be shared in an open-source library of resources for drug warning posters and social media.
To learn more about the project, view this video from the Opioid Data Lab: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHCS2TJAOgw
Read more in this press release from the Gillings School of Global Public Health: https://sph.unc.edu/sph-news/dasgupta-develops-warnings-for-tainted-street-drugs/