A Culture of Carelessness

A dangerous lack of drug testing in St Andrews

Many St Andrews students use recreational drugs unsafely. I am from San Francisco, California — a city in the midst of a deadly fentanyl crisis. It is common to know someone who has overdosed from a laced drug. People test their drugs before they use them, and if they don’t, they know they should have. Many carry Naloxone (known as Narcan in the US), which can temporarily reverse an opioid overdose. 

I was surprised to find that testing drugs and carrying Naloxone in St Andrews is the exception, not the rule. “Last time I picked up [cocaine], I picked up with seven other people, and I was the only one who tested it,” said an anonymous student I interviewed. “It’s this naive, like, ‘Why would a dealer make their product bad when that’s how they make their living?’” A lack of testing and carrying Naloxone can be a deadly combination. This gave me the impression that people weren’t going to change their practices until St Andrews saw an overdose.

These safety measures are part of a public health approach called harm reduction. Fundamentally, harm reduction accepts that people are going to use drugs regardless of attempts to punish or stigmatise drug use. Instead, education, drug testing, overdose reversal, and treatment programs reduce the potential for harm for the user and overall dampen the negative effects of drug usage. 

Street drugs are not consistently pure. The latest data from the UK Department of Health in 2018 showed MDMA/Ecstasy purity levels at 76%. Cocaine was even lower at 63%, the lower-priced variety known sometimes as ‘student’ cocaine, at about 40%. Fentanyl contributes to about a dozen deaths in Scotland each year — comparatively low, but concerning nevertheless. 

More concerning is the rising number of deaths from a new class of synthetic opioids called nitazenes. In the first three months of 2025, nitazenes had already been identified as the cause of 38 suspected drug deaths in Scotland, doubling from the same period in 2024. Nitazenes have 50–500 times the potency of heroin, and have been found as adulterants in drugs sold as heroin, oxycodone, benzodiazepines, and cannabis products. 

Even for someone using a different drug, nitazenes still pose a threat. Public Health Scotland warns of a “significant risk” of nitazenes in the wider drug supply, underreported due to limited testing. Nitazenes are also difficult to detect postmortem; according to King’s College London, they are estimated to go underreported by 33% in UK drug deaths. Nitazenes are permeating Scotland’s drug supply in a more widespread and deadly way than is being recognised. 

The only consistent source of drug tests at St Andrews is the art and music collective Szentek, which provides them before its two major events. “No one’s gonna test their drugs if they have to pay to test them, so we pay a pretty substantial amount to get these kits. But I think it’s totally worth it to give them out for free,” said Jada Wegner, Szentek’s Executive Director. “It gives me peace of mind to know that, when I’m at our events, most people have tested.” For each event, Szentek provides about 100 test kits. “We’ve run out of them every single time,” Wegner said. 

The tests that Szentek provides are known as reagent tests, the cheapest and most accessible form of drug testing. This is an umbrella term for any kind of test that uses a reagent: a compound that reacts to contact with the drug. Szentek’s tests can identify ketamine, estimate cocaine or MDMA purity, or identify common cutting agents in cocaine. 

These tests are semi-quantitative and do not eliminate the possibility of accidental overdose. None of these tests identifies nitazenes. Yet, these tests can be incredibly helpful in determining what a substance is, if it contains something else potentially deadly, or how much to take. Using their own funds, Szentek is making a noble effort to reduce potential harm from drugs at their events. 

Szentek’s test kit distribution shows demand within the student body for these resources. After speaking with them, my next question was: Why are these not being provided by the Union or Student Services? Students’ Unions in Stirling and Edinburgh provide free test kits upon request. St Andrews’ Union website, in a typo-ridden section labelled “safe drug consumption,” directs students seeking a drug test to “reach out to organisers” of the “lots of collectives and societies" that supposedly supply them. It briefly describes Naloxone and provides a link to more information, but does not mention how to obtain it.

I requested a meeting and a statement from Alex Chun, President of Wellbeing for the Union, to address my concerns about the website. Chun, to my surprise, was passionate and informed about the topic. They had spearheaded a movement to provide drink test strips and urine drug tests so students could check if they had been spiked. On drug tests and Naloxone, Chun stated, “The Union does not currently provide drug testing kits for recreational drugs. We also recommend that anyone using recreational drugs utilise the free drug testing service WEDINOS, which tests mailed-in samples of drugs for any additives — such as nitazenes […] The Union has investigated providing free Naloxone; however, the United Kingdom requires institutions distributing Naloxone to log each instance through a specific software, which the University is not eligible to access. To get Naloxone, I recommend visiting the website Scottish Families Against Drugs, as they can provide free click and deliver Naloxone kits and digital training.”

This statement shows the Union is aware of the necessity of these resources and knows where to guide people. Chun referred me to Talia Porter, coordinator of GotLimits, an initiative by Student Services focused on drug and alcohol harm reduction. GotLimits’ Instagram page provides everything the Union page lacks. They have a post on reagent testing that shows where to get it and how to do it, and one with accurate signs of overdose and when to administer Naloxone. 

I was pleasantly surprised by GotLimits’ achievements. They helped pass a paper in December that shifts the University’s drug policy towards treatment over punishment. They helped Chun organise Naloxone training for Union staff. “There’s literally a harm reduction van that comes and sits right there every Monday from four to five, and you can give your drugs to them, and they'll send them to get tested,” Porter said, pointing to the courtyard outside our seat in Rector’s Cafe. The van also provides Naloxone kits, safe consumption materials, and treatment advice. 

When I asked Porter about reagent test kits, the answer got more complicated. They explained that GotLimits is authorised to help provide them to clubs and societies before events. However, as the main concern in the current drug market is nitazenes, there is a risk of a false negative. Again, reagent tests don’t identify nitazenes. “University of Stirling has a guide to go with their drug tests,” Porter explained, “and that would need to be developed. I am developing it.” 

This reminded me of a phrase I heard a few times during this investigation that people were reluctant to go into detail on: “insurance liability.” It seemed there were voices concerned about the implication of providing a student with a drug test for the student to receive a false result and overdose. I asked Porter about this: “I just think that all of these concerns around insurance are sometimes maybe a mask for concerns around traditions. And I think it prevents us from doing a lot of good work,” they said. Porter described GotLimits’ relationship with Student Services as overall positive and stressed that they have students’ best interests at heart. But miles of bureaucratic red tape, including these insurance concerns, seem to be stopping GotLimits from achieving the full potential of the work they want to be doing.

There is demand in St Andrews for harm-reduction materials, which is not currently being met. Motivated actors within Student Services and the Union are making progress towards filling this demand. These pushes, however, currently fall short of creating easy and widespread access, leaving the responsibility on societies such as Szentek. Bureaucracy, insurance concerns, a lack of publicity, and, possibly, traditional modes of thought slow progress and limit access. Students’ false sense of security about drug safety creates apathy towards seeking out the services that do exist. Hopefully, one of these can catch up to the other, and we can prevent a tragedy before it happens.

Photos courtesy of Hanna Sabu and Jada Wegner