![\"KnowYourStuff](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/4KU5JVD_KnowYourStuff_manager_Casey_Spearin_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nKnowYourStuff manager Casey Spearin
\nPhoto: Leah Hollingworth\n<\/p>\n
A drug-checking group is reminding concertgoers this New Year party season that it offers a free, legal and confidential service.<\/p>\n
KnowYourStuff will be at the AUM New Years Festival, Northern Bass, Twisted Frequency and Rhythm and Alps in W\u0101naka, while the Drug Foundation will be at Gisborne’s Rhythm and Vines.<\/p>\n
KnowYourStuff spokesperson Casey Spearin said one in 10 drugs on the black market were not what they were sold as.<\/p>\n
“We recommend that anyone who is planning on taking drugs this summer tries to get them checked before they do consume if possible.<\/p>\n
“It’s a good idea to get your drugs checked even if you’ve purchased from that person before and trust them, because you know, there can be changes anywhere along the supply chain.”<\/p>\n
Spearin said there was concern about synthetic cathinones (‘bath salts’, for example) being sold as MDMA (ecstasy).<\/p>\n
And sometimes buyers got more than they might have been expecting, putting them at serious risk of hospitalisation or death.<\/p>\n
“Another thing that we always tend to recommend people looking out for is high-dose pills. Often people are buying\u2026 ecstasy pills, and we do see these coming through with multiple doses of MDMA, you know, sometimes two to three doses.<\/p>\n
“I think there was one found that had nine or more doses in it.”<\/p>\n
There had also been an uptake in the use of cocaine and ketamine, she said – some of it not the real thing.<\/p>\n
Spearin said drug testing was free, anonymous, confidential and legal.<\/p>\n
A temporary law legalising drug checking was made permanent in 2021<\/a>. Then-Health Minister Andrew Little said evidence showed pill-testing kept people safe, intercepting potentially dangerous substances before being consumed.<\/p>\n The bill had support across Parliament<\/a>, except from National, which opposed it.<\/p>\n