Insecticide was found in amphetamine - a large part of the drugs on the street contain something other than what the seller claims

Amphetamine in a laboratory tube — The drug residues to be investigated come from users from different parts of Helsinki. In the archive picture, amphetamine is processed in the Tulli laboratory. THL investigates drugs in the street to lab project.

The research project finds out what drugs sold on the street contain. The goal of the A-klinikkasäätiö is to find dangerous drug batches and warn about them.

There are a lot of drugs on the street, the content of which does not match the sales pitch. Of the fourteen amphetamine samples examined by THL, none contained only amphetamine. The substance had been extended with, among other things, caffeine and methamphetamine. The insecticide methomyl was found in one sample.

Drug impurities appear in the interim report of the A-Klinikka Foundation’s Street to Lab study. The project analyzed 61 drug residues collected from users between April and September of this year.

The samples have been collected from different parts of Helsinki, for example at needle exchange points, and they are stored in a safe before examination.

On the left, an empty minigrip bag with drug residue. There is a green sticker in the bag that says KL-028. On the right, the same minigrip bag on top of a gray safe whose door is ajar. — Drug residues are kept in a safe, from where they are taken once a month to THL’s laboratory for examination. The research project will last until the spring of 2024, and it is financed by the Kone Foundation.

In addition to amphetamine, most of the samples contained MDMA, or ecstasy, the sedative alprazolam sold as Xalol tablets, and ketamine.

The impurities were substance-specific. About a third of the samples were what was needed. Six out of ten MDMA samples did not contain other substances. For xalol, only one sample out of nine contained something other than alprazolam.

In addition to cocaine, two cocaine samples also found obsolete medicinal substances, which, according to Nahkuri, pose a lot of health risks.

The goal is to warn about dangerous drug batches

The safety of drug use outside of society is not monitored in any way. From the street to the lab is a two-year project whose goal is to detect atypical drug batches and warn about them.

In the bust, Janne Nahkuri, the project coordinator of the A-klinikka foundation's From the street to the lab project. — A-klinikkasäätiö’s project coordinator Janne Nahkuri visited Lahti at the Health Advice Days. The event will discuss the Finnish drug issue from several angles.

The extent of the warning is assessed on a case-by-case basis, depending on whether the substance is widely distributed and how dangerous the sample is. The insecticide found in amphetamine was communicated to substance abuse workers and drug users in Helsinki at the sample collection points.

– There were no indications that there was more of it in circulation or that people had to be hospitalized, Janne Nahkuri says.

As the number of examined samples increases, Nahkuri hopes the results will clarify the picture of the quality of drugs sold in Finland.

*You can discuss the topic until Thursday 3 November 2022 at 11 pm.*