A NORTH-East city is the second in the country to offer a pioneering service to drug users so they know exactly what is in the substances they are taking.

A pop-up lab is being set up in Durham, with chemists offering free, confidential forensic testing to find out the contents and purity of drugs.

It is being organised by The Loop, a non profit organisation set up by Durham University criminologist Fiona Measham.

She said: “We live in the real world where, despite everything we may do to stop it, some people will take drugs and we want to help them make informed decisions about the risks involved.

“The Loop’s drug safety testing over the last three years shows information like this can change behaviour, reduce hospital admissions, provide valuable intelligence about drugs in circulation to alert emergency services and the wider community, and ultimately, we believe, help to reduce drug-related harm.”

The lab is being set up at St Nicholas’ Church, Market Place, tomorrow from 12pm-6pm and on Saturday from 12pm-8pm.

People can bring a dose of any substance of concern for testing, with the results given during a 15 minute consultation with healthcare staff.

Durham Police and Crime Commissioner Ron Hogg said: “I support this approach which reduces harm to drug users in order to keep people safe and prevent drug-related deaths. It gives us an idea of what is in circulation and gets it out of circulation, allowing us a level of regulation of an otherwise unregulated and harmful market.”

Durham Police’s chief constable Mike Barton added: “Anyone who thinks drugs are not freely available in the UK is hiding their head in the sand. We need to know what dangerous chemicals are in those drugs which are, all too often, available and this initiative is about making it safer for people.”

The service has been used at UK festivals for three years, with research from the pilot finding one in five substances were not as described by the supplier.