Exams not tests
Student associations want to see drug testing introduced but universities aren’t keen to offer this service, writes Steven Walton.
Universities reluctant to help with drug safety
The director of New Zealand’s only festival drug checking service is calling on universities to help keep their students safe by providing their own drug-testing services.
Wendy Allison, of drug-testing service KnowYourStuffNZ, said it was ‘‘about time universities stepped up’’ and used their own spectrometers to give students better access to testing services.
Five student associations said they welcomed the prospect of drug testing at upcoming orientation weeks but only one – the Otago University Students’ Association – was able to do so.
This was down to a lack of resources, according to students’ associations at Canterbury, Massey, Lincoln, and Wellington.
The Bruker Alpha II spectrometer run by KnowYourStuffNZ can identify the content of illicit drugs, so users know what they are consuming.
A University of Canterbury spokeswoman said its science and engineering departments had ‘‘various versions of Bruker spectrometers’’.
The spectrometers were not suitable for orientation week testing because they were fitted for specialised research.
A University of Otago spokeswoman said it had spectrometers but declined to comment further.
A Victoria University spokeswoman said it would be ‘‘unlikely’’ to use its spectrometers for an off-site event.
She said the university’s priority for this equipment was using it ‘‘for teaching students and academic research.’’
In late December, KnowYourStuffNZ detected dangerouslyhigh doses of the party drug MDMA circulating in New Zealand.
Presently, the service has only three spectrometers, which means KnowYourStuffNZ can test only three sites at a time.
The testing machines cost $50,000 each, Allison said.
She hoped universities would ‘‘seriously consider’’ using their own equipment. ‘‘The question to put to the universities is ‘how much do you care about the lives of your students?’ Universities are ideally positioned to provide this service for their own students.’’ Taking drugs was ‘‘relatively normalised’’ for ‘‘a certain cohort of students’’, said University of Canterbury Students’ Association president Tori McNoe.
‘‘You want it to be available for any student who might need it at anytime but we totally understand that [its absence is] because there is a lack of resources.’’
Massey University Students’ Association (MUSA) engaged with KnowYourStuffNZ about implementing testing this year, president Stefan Biberstein said.
‘‘However, this service was not able to be delivered due to increased demand versus limited resource available. MUSA encourages central government to increase the resources available to these organisations so they may deliver this vital service.’’
Lincoln University Students’ Association (LUSA) general manager Fiona Kay said it ‘‘would have definitely entered into discussions’’ with KnowYourStuffNZ if there were more resources.
‘‘It all comes down to resource and funding.’’
LUSA had drug testing available in October last year for its Garden Party, an annual end-ofyear event.
A Victoria University of Wellington Students’ Association spokeswoman said the lack of resources was one of the ‘‘biggest barriers’’ to introducing testing.
Allison confirmed KnowYourStuffNZ would have three teams active during orientation week, which kicks off next week, but she was unable to say where they would be located.
Otago was the first university students’ association to offer drug testing during orientation week in 2019.