The Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS) has been conducted annually since 2000. The IDRS is a national drug monitoring system, designed to identify and track emerging trends of local and national concern in illicit drug use and markets. The IDRS forms part of the broader Drug Trends program.

This bulletin investigates past-year drug checking engagement and associated demographic, jurisdictional, and harm-related factors among a sample of people who inject drugs recruited as part of the 2025 Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS).

Key findings

• In 2025, 15% of participants reported that they or someone else had tested the contents of their drugs in the past year.
• Among those reporting past-year drug checking, 59% used a personal test kit only, 35% used a drug checking service only, and 7% used both.
• Living in Canberra, younger age, and past-year exposure to drug alerts were significantly associated with past-year drug checking.
• When analyses were restricted to personal test kit use, Canberra residence was no longer significantly associated with drug checking, suggesting that the association observed in the primary model was largely driven by use of the CanTEST fixed-site service.

Discussion

These findings suggest that overall drug checking engagement (encompassing both personal testing and use of a formal DCS) was significantly associated with living in Canberra, younger age, and exposure to drug alerts. When the outcome was restricted to personal testing kit use only, residence in Canberra was no longer significantly associated and the direction of the association reversed. This suggests that the association between Canberra residence and overall drug checking engagement in the primary model was driven by use of the CanTEST fixed-site service specifically, rather than a broader self-testing culture among Canberra residents. These findings are consistent with fixed-site drug checking services playing a distinct role in facilitating formal drug checking engagement among people who inject drugs, beyond the availability of personal reagent testing kits.

Exposure to drug alerts was consistently associated with checking behaviour across both models, suggesting alert systems may be reaching, or resonating with, people who are already engaged in harm-reduction behaviours more broadly. The associations observed with past-year overdose and naloxone access point to drug checking being one part of a broader cluster of harm-reduction engagement among people at higher apparent risk, though the overdose and naloxone associations in the primary model did not reach conventional significance and warrant further consideration.

As fixed-site drug checking services are established in other Australian jurisdictions, including Victoria opening a service in August 2025 (i.e., after the 2025 survey wave), further research is needed to understand the factors that facilitate or hinder engagement with these services among people who use drugs.

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Recommended citation

Curran J, Lenton S. Engagement with drug checking among a sample of people who inject drugs in Australia, 2025. Drug Trends Bulletin Series. Sydney: National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney; 2026. Available from: https://doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/32617

Funding and copyright

Drug Trends is supported by funding from the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing under the Drug and Alcohol Program.

©NDARC, UNSW SYDNEY 2026 

This work is copyright. You may download, display, print and reproduce this material in unaltered form only (retaining this notice) for your personal, non-commercial use or use within your organisation. All other rights are reserved. Requests and enquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be addressed to the information manager, NDARC, UNSW Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia via drugtrends@unsw.edu.au.

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• Engagement with drug checking among a sample of people who inject drugs in Australia, 2025

Contact

For further information, contact Jack Curran at jack.curran@curtin.edu.au

Research areas