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KnowYourStuffNZ

@knowyourstuffnz.bsky.social

39 followers 53 following 260 posts

Drug checking and harm reduction service at events and in the community in Aotearoa since 2015. World's first legal drug checking operation, doing the thing legally since 2021 😊

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KnowYourStuffNZ @knowyourstuffnz.bsky.social · May 15

Just getting a law changed and becoming a world-first. Y'know, the usual 😉

www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

Drug checking to be permanent after law passes third reading

Drug-checking services have been given the all-clear to keep testing the safety of illicit substances at festivals and other locations over summer.

www.rnz.co.nz

KnowYourStuffNZ @knowyourstuffnz.bsky.social · 7h

Kia ora e hoa mai i Ōtepoti! Kua tae mai ta matou whare haumanu tātari matū i te Rāmere 😄

💛 Ina: 4:30-7:30pm, 17 Whiringa-ā-nuku
💛 Kei hea: OUSA Clubs & Societies building, 84 Albany Street

Ko te tātaritanga matū he kore utu, he muna, he kore-whakawa, he 100% te ture 😊

KnowYourStuffNZ @knowyourstuffnz.bsky.social · 7h

Kia ora e hoa mai i Mauao! Kei te haere mai ta matou whare haumanu tātari matū

💛 Ina: 12-3pm, 17 Whiringa-ā-nuku
💛 Kei hea: NEMMS needle exchange, 21b Totara Street, Mauao. Whakamahia te tatau o muri i te huarahi o Phoenix

Ko te tātaritanga matū he kore utu, he muna, he kore-whakawa & 100% te ture

KnowYourStuffNZ @knowyourstuffnz.bsky.social · 7h

Hi Dunedin friends! We've got a drug checking clinic heading your way this week 😃😃 😃

💛 When: 4:30-7:30pm, 17 October
💛 Where: OUSA Clubs and Societies Centre, 84 Albany Street, Dunedin North

Drug checking is free, confidential, non-judgmental, and 100% legal 💛

KnowYourStuffNZ @knowyourstuffnz.bsky.social · 7h

Hi Bay of Plenty friends! We've got our regular Mount Maunganui drug checking clinic this week😀

💛 When: 12-3pm, 17 October
💛 Where: NEMMS Needle Exchange, 21b Totara Street, Mount Maunganui (Use the Phoenix Lane entrance)

Drug checking is free, confidential, non-judgmental, and 100% legal 💛

KnowYourStuffNZ @knowyourstuffnz.bsky.social · 1d

We've got over a centuries' worth of data from the entire WORLD showing the absolute failure of prohibition and its punitive legal frameworks.

How many more people have to die before things change?

6/6

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KnowYourStuffNZ @knowyourstuffnz.bsky.social · 1d

Instead they took away something that's been proven to lower peoples' risks, and now people are dying. Just like everyone told the LNP they would.

This is what happens when 'tough on crime' legislation ignores basic common sense.

5/n

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KnowYourStuffNZ @knowyourstuffnz.bsky.social · 1d

If the LNP truly wanted to hurt dealers like they say they do, they'd let people use drug checking services. The reputational and associated economic consequences would fall on the dealer and the rest would be history.

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KnowYourStuffNZ @knowyourstuffnz.bsky.social · 1d

The reports given by multiple stakeholder groups including medical professionals said that people were going to die because of this.

Other reports given to the LNP echoed what our data has shown over the last decade - people will decline to take substances that are unexpected high risk.

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KnowYourStuffNZ @knowyourstuffnz.bsky.social · 1d

We thought that was unacceptable because we're decent humans and we don't think death is an acceptable consequence for ANYTHING, not just taking drugs.

Queensland had legal drug checking up until last month, when the LNP defunded and outlawed it because they 'didn't support drug dealers'.

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KnowYourStuffNZ @knowyourstuffnz.bsky.social · 1d

Hi friends. Just want to give a heads up to what's happening in Queensland right now bc it's heartbreaking.

We started KnowYourStuffNZ 10 years ago because we knew sooner or later someone was going to die from an adulterated or substituted substance.

1/n

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...

Person dies after deadly opioid detected in yellow teddy bear pill

Queensland Health issues a public health alert warning nitazenes have been detected in tablets.

www.abc.net.au

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KnowYourStuffNZ @knowyourstuffnz.bsky.social · 1d

Receipts part 3:

Riots in the UK
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...

Discussions in British Parliament around the hippy cultural revolution
historymatters.sites.sheffield.ac.uk/blog-archive...

List of riots in London - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

KnowYourStuffNZ @knowyourstuffnz.bsky.social · 1d

Receipts part 2:
1960s Cultural Revolution in the USA:
www.goodreads.com/book/show/35...
Cannabis and youth politics in the late 60s and President Nixon's actions:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Riots in the USA en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...

www.goodreads.com

KnowYourStuffNZ @knowyourstuffnz.bsky.social · 1d

Receipts part 1:
Report of the Interdepartmental Committee On Drug Addiction, United Kingdom 1962
www.unodc.org/unodc/en/dat...

Background on The War on Drugs (CW racism) knowyourstuff.nz/the-moda-nee...

www.unodc.org

KnowYourStuffNZ @knowyourstuffnz.bsky.social · 1d

Tightening drug laws hasn’t stopped riots, either.

The Convention on Psychotropic Substances came out in 1971. If it was going to stop riots, they wouldn't happen.

UK riots 1980-2025: 38
USA riots 1980-2025: 89

Most of these were after deaths or maimings of black people in Police custody.

5/n

KnowYourStuffNZ @knowyourstuffnz.bsky.social · 1d

It turns out that opposing things like nuclear war and legislative bigotry weren’t that radical. Mainstream interest spurred global legislation changes, which led to voting rights for minorities and nuclear de-escalation.

Take away the injustices causing the protest, the protests go away 😱🤔🤯

4/n

KnowYourStuffNZ @knowyourstuffnz.bsky.social · 1d

The UN Convention of Psychotropic Substances 1971 classified psychedelics to Schedule 1. Strict drug control = no radical hippies = no more violent clashes, right?

Nope. Sensible policy = no radical hippies.

Yes, the radical hippy movement died, but it had nothing to do with drugs.

3/n

KnowYourStuffNZ @knowyourstuffnz.bsky.social · 1d

Today looks at the contexts that influenced the UN, which in turn shaped MoDA. Part 2 covers why we thought UN’s decisions were useful.

At the same time the MoDA debate was going on here, civil rights and anti-war protests rose up all over the world. Some protesters were also taking drugs.

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KnowYourStuffNZ @knowyourstuffnz.bsky.social · 1d

Hi friends! Welcome to Mythbuster Monday 🙂

Last week we had an intro to MoDA. Now we’re going look at why the changes made from the Narcotics Act 1965 were thought necessary.

This is a HUGE topic to cover, so we’re splitting it. We'll post part 2 on Wednesday.

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KnowYourStuffNZ @knowyourstuffnz.bsky.social · 4d

The researchers noted that although abstinence-only treatment was not Naltrain’s target, getting take-home naloxone training to as many people as possible was important and these could be areas of further programmes.

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KnowYourStuffNZ @knowyourstuffnz.bsky.social · 4d

💛784 naloxone trainings were conducted by 123 different drug services
💛 The largest naloxone training event had 150 people! 😍

The not-so-inspiring things for us were:
💛There weren’t many medical organisations or abstinence-based treatment facilities trained with Naltrain 😕

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KnowYourStuffNZ @knowyourstuffnz.bsky.social · 4d

💛Over 2,300 people who used opioids were trained in the Naltrain campaign, and almost 1500 received naloxone (note that naloxone is prescription-only in Germany)
💛Training participants mostly worked in harm reduction, counseling, and prisons

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KnowYourStuffNZ @knowyourstuffnz.bsky.social · 4d

Hi friends! It's Peer Review Friday 🥳

This week we’ve found a German review of a three-year take home naloxone project called Naltrain.

The interesting (and super inspiring) things for us were:

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pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

The implementation of take-home naloxone: Lessons learned from a 3-year take-home naloxone project in Germany

Take-home naloxone (THN) can prevent deaths related to opioid overdoses. Despite the first THN project in Germany in 1998, the availability of naloxone for people who use opioids (PWUO) is still scarc...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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KnowYourStuffNZ @knowyourstuffnz.bsky.social · 4d

Reposted by KnowYourStuffNZ

Drug Policy Facts @drugpolicyfacts.bsky.social · 5d

Recordings from the 2025 NDARC Research Symposium are now available
www.unsw.edu.au/research/nda...

2025 NDARC Annual Research Symposium

www.unsw.edu.au

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KnowYourStuffNZ @knowyourstuffnz.bsky.social · 5d

Kia ora e hoa mai i Kirikiriroa! Kua tae mai ta matou whare haumanu tātari matū ia marama 🙂

💛 Ina: 4-7pm, 11 Whiringa-ā-Nuku
💛 Kei hea: L2, 11 Garden Place, Te pokapū o Kirikiriroa

Ko te tātaritanga matū he kore utu, he muna, he kore-whakawa, he 100% te ture 😘