The Loop, the UK’s only dedicated drug checking service, has launched a new campaign to raise funds to expand its life-saving work.
The charity’s ‘Test & Know’ campaign is seeking £25,000 to fund a new mobile laboratory to help increase testing capacity and extend its services across city centres and music events.
Each test costs around £12, covering the price of equipment and consumables, with the charity encouraging supporters to donate the equivalent of one test – in a ‘pay it forward’-style scheme.
Founded in 2012, The Loop became the first organisation to receive a Home Office licence for onsite ‘back of house’ drug testing in 2024, providing its service at the likes of The Warehouse Project, Parklife and festivals across the UK.
Working with police, public health services, drug treatment providers and event organisers, it tests substances that have been confiscated, found or handed in via amnesty boxes, and then issues alerts about high-risk drugs, sharing data in real time on emerging trends.
Katy Porter, CEO of The Loop, said: “We want to be able to do more and reach more people to reduce drug-related harm. As a charity the funding and resources available to us can restrict this. We know there is significant support from many people for the work we do, and we are asking you to donate as much or as little as you can to enable us to deliver more drug checking and testing in the UK.”
At Parklife festival last month, The Loop’s team identified MDMA pills with strengths up to three times a common adult dose, warning festival-goers and helping reduce the risk of overdose.
Professor Fiona Measham, Chair in Criminology at the University of Liverpool and Founder of The Loop, added: “The Loop is a small charity with a big heart, staffed by hundreds of qualified and committed volunteers who donate their time and expertise to deliver the service to help keep people safe.
“Your donation will support our chemists to identify substances of concern drawing on the latest technological advances and health professionals to communicate test results and relative risk, rapidly and without judgement, to the public and partner organisations.”
With drug-related deaths at record highs and the rise of synthetic substances like nitazenes, The Loop says expanding real-time testing and public alerts is vital to reducing harm.
The ‘Test & Know’ campaign aims to secure the charity’s long-term sustainability and reach, ensuring more people can access reliable information about substances and how to stay safe.
For more information – and to donate – click here…
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