〽️Service Stats & Updates
As of Thursday, December 18, 2025...
18,140 samples analyzed
Serving 189 harm reduction programs
Reaching 296 counties in 43 states
477 unique substances identified
Note to our service users: If you’re using an older version of our card to report test strip results, please specify if “MTS” means methamphetamine or medetomidine!
📦 Service Updates
Our team will be out of the office from December 22-January 2, 2026. Meaning we will not be processing any kit requests or analyzing samples during that time. Regular operations will resume on Monday, January 5, 2026. Thank you for your understanding. We’re excited to bring back new insights to strengthen our work and share our experiences!
🗓️The Year in Drugs
2024/2025 reshaped the U.S. drug landscape and 2026 could define a generation. From shifting drug preferences , a destabilized supply, funding cuts, geopolitics, and rising surveillance, the forces at play will decide who benefits, who’s harmed, and whether recent gains hold or slip away. Click below to read how we break down the four trends that will shape what comes next and why harm reduction has never mattered more.
Nabarun Dasgupta
🥳 Celebrating Nab
We’re thrilled to share that Nabarun Dasgupta, the mastermind behind our lab, has been named a 2025 MacArthur Fellow — better known as the “Genius Grant.” This incredible honor celebrates what we’ve always known- Nab’s unwavering dedication to humanizing drug policy and advocating for people who use drugs. Even amid the excitement, Nab’s focus remains on the future and how this award can help expand our collective impact. Click the link below to learn more about his inspiring work and this well-deserved achievement!
Adams Sibley
Drug Policy Alliance 2025
Our team had an amazing time at the Reform Conference engaging in powerful discussions with influential leaders in harm reduction, sharing ideas, and building connections that will last well beyond the weekend. The gathering brought together advocates from across the movement focused on building a future where drug policy centers health, equity, and safety. We left feeling energized, inspired, and more committed than ever to the work ahead. Hopefully we got to chat at the ACDC meeting! We loved tabling, meeting so many passionate folks, and we’re happy to report that our swag was a big hit.😉
Our team enjoying our time in Detroit! Pictured: Nab, Shay, Erin, Jalice, Paula, Dmitri, Adams, & Illyana. Not pictured: Our two Davids.
🛍️ Department of Unsafe Supply
Were you disappointed in Halloween candy this year? Did it taste a little less chocolatey? You're right!
Prices for cacao raw material have increased due to shortages. Candy companies have reformulated and rebranded to put less of the active ingredient into finished product.
Where have we heard this before recently? 🤔 Oh yeah, the national conversation about whether fentanyl concentrations have declined. One way this gets quantified is in wastewater. Pittsburgh has a nice dashboard for these data:
Just like Mr. Goodbar isn't going away, just being reformulated to be less potent (ha!), why would be surprised if similar things are happening in the unregulated drug supply?
Taking this candy analogy a step further, The Atlantic points out that Gen Z and Millennial consumers "seek out taste mash-ups, unexpected textures, and flavor experiences" – the same trends we see in the accelerating mixing of components of street drugs.
Unregulated drugs exist in a free market. (Free-for-all market?) Consumer demand explains a lot of what we see in the adulterated candy and drug supply chains.
(Both those articles are behind paywalls, but ahem.)
📷EmpathyLens
EmpathyLens.org is a free online library of realistic, compassionate, and non-stigmatizing photos related to drug use, harm reduction, treatment, recovery, and prevention that anyone can use in outreach, education, or media. Its goal is to reduce stigma by promoting humanizing imagery and offering stigma-education resources alongside the images. All photos are available under a public-domain license so organizations and individuals can freely include them in their work. Click here to check out their site and learn more!
📣 Team Voices
Check out monthly blog posts from members of our team!
In a drug supply shaped by unpredictability, David highlights how people who use drugs actively protect one another through using together, spotting, and watching out for community. Explore what safer support can look like when someone prefers or needs to use alone, underscoring how connection, even from a distance, can save lives.
David Colston
Post OD Toolkit
This post-overdose toolkit is a gentle, compassionate guide for friends and family navigating what comes after a loved one survives an overdose. It reminds readers they are not alone in a scary and emotional moment and offers clear, nonjudgmental guidance on caring for both your loved one and yourself. Grounded in empathy, harm reduction, and lived experience. Above all, it centers dignity, love, and hope during a time when support matters most. ❤️🩹
📖 Reading Room
A place for things that taught us something new and maybe you will learn something too!
Check out this reel from The Daily Show- I promise you’ll find it amazing regarding the “war on drugs”. It somehow manages to be both painfully accurate and laugh-out-loud funny. 😄
American Journal of Preventive Medicine: Illicit drug use during pregnancy in states with and without punitive prenatal substance use policies
Health Affairs: Empowering A New Kind Of Research Team To Study Substance Use
JAMA Network: Over-the-Counter Retail Naloxone Sales
Legal Action Center: Groundbreaking Settlement in Lawsuit About Right to Nursing Care for Individual with Substance Use Disorder
Reynolds Journalism Institute: Resisting false binaries when reporting on the complexities of addiction
Settlement Funds: Take a look at how Texas is handling opioid settlement dollars
Slate: How Gen Z Is Rewriting the Rules of Sobriety Learn more about SoberTok and what YA in AA have to say!
Talking Drugs: Checkout this post about why banning drug checking has heartbreaking outcomes
Washington Post: Dancing patients’ aren’t the biggest problem with drug ads and/or Unsafe amounts of lead found in some protein powders, report says
Wiley:Refining cause of death attribution among opioid, opioid-stimulant and stimulant acute toxicity deaths
🤗 Opportunities for Impact
Job postings, conferences, proposals, and other events for you harm reduction baddies! If you have a job posting or event you'd like us to highlight, please be in touch.
Atrium Health is looking for a new Peer Support Specialist!
Check out how the City of Chicago's community worked to lower overdose death's by 37% since the national peak!
Missouri Institute of Mental Health’s Addiction Science Team is hiring a Senior Research Specialist to support research and evaluation across overdose prevention, substance use treatment, and recovery services statewide.
Huge shoutout to Professor Delesha Carpenter and others who put together Naloxone Near Me where people in NC can go for naloxone resources!
Legal Action Center Training Overcoming Opposition to Substance Use Disorder Treatment Programs: Leveraging Anti-Discrimination Law
Need Visuals for harm Reduction? Check out these resources ▶️ Empathy Lens, Zero Stigma, Radian Photography
NYC Health Department is hiring Drug Checking Technician!
NYU Post Doc opportunity focusing on OUD access, treatment, etc.!
🎙️Podcasts
Check out On Becoming a Healer's episode on opioid/pain issues from On Becoming a Healer. Here's a list on where to listen!
Thanks for reading and I hope your year ends in the most amazing way possible!!!
