PEORIA (25News Now) — Ten years ago, if someone wanted to buy heroin or methamphetamine, they could buy their desired drug without concern over what it’s mixed with. Now it’s a guessing game, according to JOLT Harm Reduction Executive Director Chris Schaffner.
To reduce the threat of a drug overdose in Central Illinois, JOLT received a drug-checking machine to offer information on what’s in a drug before it’s too late.
The ALPHA II Compact FT-IR Spectrometer can test a small sample of an illicit substance on the street and get a profile of any contaminants. Schaffner says it’ll be a game changer in overdose prevention.
“I’m just so tired of waiting for people to die to figure out what killed them,” Schaffner said. “If we can figure out what might kill them, we can maybe intervene before it does that.”
The scanner came through one of the grants that JOLT has with Northwestern University that’s focused on overdose death data. The goal of this grant is to saturate high-risk communities with overdose prevention tools like NARCAN or Naloxone, and now this new tool.
Schaffner said 2023 post-mortem toxicology results from Peoria and Tazewell County show a combination of drugs in their bodies, including adulterants ranging from fentanyl, benzodiazepines, and animal tranquilizers like xylazine.
Tazewell County Coroner Charles Hanley said in 2023, his office performed 25 overdose autopsies, 64% of which included fentanyl.
All the machine would need is a small sample or even residue of a drug to scan it. Schaffner said it takes 15 minutes to come back with results rather than several days if he were to send a sample to the lab. It also doesn’t ruin the product.
“If someone is struggling with substance use, and they’re dependent on something, they’re not going to wait ten days to get the results, or they’re going to use because they’re really sick and they are trying not to be sick anymore,” said Schaffner.
Schaffner said without knowing what’s in the supply, JOLT’s outreach volunteers can’t educate drug users about the possible risks. Once JOLT can, Schaffner hopes word of mouth will carry the accurate information to at-risk communities.
JOLT’s new device is the first drug screener at street level in Central Illinois. Schaffner expects to build a network of these machines from Chicago to St. Louis.
“I think our people want to be informed consumers and educated consumers. Even with the test strips we have, we find that people are clamoring for those, they want to know what they’re using, they’re not willy-nilly, they’re not reckless, they can be thoughtful if they have access to the resources,” said Schaffner.
Schaffner said there’s still training involved, so the device is not available yet, but he expects to be ready to use it in about a month.
This story first appeared on 25NewsNow.com.
