Evaluation of data collection activities of a drug-checking service in Colombia: a narrative review and consulting practice

Abstract

Background: Drug-checking services are a harm reduction tool useful in scenarios such as the party scene. The data collected during this interaction is of vital importance since it fills in gaps that wouldn't be filled otherwise. Then, it is necessary to collect information relevant to the context and to follow the appropriate procedure. Method: A narrative review was done, where procedure and questions from studies in similar contexts were reviewed and information was extracted. Then, during a consultation practice with the organization that provides the service, it was agreed upon which questions and procedures were going to be adopted as a regular practice. Results: Informed consent was determined not to be necessary since the survey is anonymous, so a short statement was phrased to inform users about the survey. Several questions were gathered from the narrative review on 3 domains: demographics, drug use, and drug-checking services. One question was relocated, eight questions were added, two questions were rephrased and one possible answer was added to the original survey. Conclusion: Informing the user beforehand on the type of questions that are going to be asked on the anonymous survey is not mandatory yet is recommended. The questions to be included in the survey that is applied at the time of drug-checking must follow a clear objective on the information that will be collected and be consistent with the context where it is being applied. Surveys must be reassessed on a periodic basis to include or exclude questions.