Kingston Police Service Board learns about life-saving community drug checking program

By Christena Lawrie, CFRC's Broadcast Journalist and Local Journalism Initiative Reporter.

At their monthly meeting on June 19, the Kingston Police Service Board heard a detailed presentation on the results of a new community drug checking program.

Established in Toronto in 2019, Kingston became the first other city to adopt the program in November 2024 through the Integrated Care Hub (ICH). The program allows individuals to test unregulated substances before use, offering insights into contamination and potency. 

Findings revealed that every single fentanyl sample tested in Kingston was contaminated with unexpected substances. 

“When we first opened an opioid overdose response was pretty cut and dry,” explained Justine McIsaac, Coordinator of Consumption and Treatment Services at the ICH. “Now it has become so complicated that we’ve had to change our whole process of how we respond to overdoses…”

Information gathered from testing is shared publicly, spreading awareness of what is circulating in the unregulated drug supply.

“Regardless of whether you’re focused on community safety, harm reduction, treatment, prevention- understanding what it is that’s in the drug supply is crucial,” said Karen McDonald, Executive Director of Ontario’s Drug Checking Community.

Listen to the full story here.