{"id":4507,"date":"2026-04-09T15:27:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T14:27:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/student\/?p=4507"},"modified":"2026-04-09T15:27:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T14:27:26","slug":"launch-of-a-new-drug-testing-pilot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/student\/2026\/04\/09\/launch-of-a-new-drug-testing-pilot\/","title":{"rendered":"Launch of a new drug testing pilot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In March 2026, The Students\u2019 Union at UWE partnered with Bristol Drugs Project (BDP) to launch a new drug testing kit pilot across Frenchay and Bower Campuses. The pilot runs on a drop-in basis so students can come along to a pop-up at a campus site of their choosing.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We launched this pilot following conversations with students at various drug and alcohol events and via online interactions, whereby they expressed an interest in testing kits. This shows a growing awareness among students of the risks associated with substance use, a desire for practical tools to mitigate those risks and the confidence and knowledge that this is a safe environment to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During drop-in sessions, students picking up a kit will get the chance to speak to a practitioner from BDP for around 5 to 20 minutes (dependant on how many questions they have) who\u2019ll ask them about their experiences with taking and testing drugs. They\u2019ll also be shown how to use a reagent kit and be offered advice on how to interpret the result and risks associated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/student\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2026\/04\/kits.gif\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4511\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The first session saw a high level of engagement at Frenchay Campus, with 30 reagent kits distributed and 17 students engaging in conversations about drug safety and harm reduction. Students not only took kits for themselves but took them home for friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Our second session was over at Bower Ashton Campus where we had 10 students engage in conversations and over 15 kits were given out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you\u2019re interested in picking up your own at home reagent testing kit come along to one of our next pop-ups:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Frenchay Campus &#8211; The Students\u2019 Union, Meeting Room 4<\/strong><br>Thursday 23 April: 11:00 \u2013 15:00<br>Thursday 21 May: 11:00 \u2013 15:00<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Bower Ashton Campus &#8211; B Block, Room 0B018<\/strong><br>Thursday 7 May: 11:00 \u2013 15:00<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you would like to find out more about our harm reduction approach to student drug and alcohol use you can:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Visit our webpages for more harm reduction advice and guidance: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thestudentsunion.co.uk\/support\/drugsincludingalcohol\/\">Drugs Including Alcohol and Drugs and alcohol<\/a> <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uwe.ac.uk\/life\/health-and-wellbeing\/stay-happy-and-healthy\/alcohol-and-drugs\">Staying happy and healthy | UWE Bristol<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Sign up to be part of our <a href=\"https:\/\/forms.office.com\/pages\/responsepage.aspx?id=CBLvBzxBXkuc3WTvMFdU8FaviFvU0WVAih0hOLtWv1hUOThWSUozMUw1NjBXOFg1STRaRE1FNUtEQyQlQCN0PWcu&amp;route=shorturl\">Student Steering Group: Expression of interest<\/a> <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uwe.ac.uk\/life\/health-and-wellbeing\/stay-happy-and-healthy\/alcohol-and-drugs\">Book an appointment<\/a> with UWE\u2019s Drug and Alcohol Service<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In March 2026, The Students\u2019 Union at UWE partnered with Bristol Drugs Project (BDP) to launch a new drug testing kit pilot across Frenchay and Bower Campuses. The pilot runs on a drop-in basis so students can come along to a pop-up at a campus site of their choosing. We launched this pilot following conversations &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/student\/2026\/04\/09\/launch-of-a-new-drug-testing-pilot\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Launch of a new drug testing pilot&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":4510,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":204,"footnotes":""},"categories":[204],"tags":[321,418,365,205,71,311,211,323,390,6],"class_list":["post-4507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drugs-and-alcohol","tag-alcohol","tag-alcohol-awareness","tag-bristol-drugs-project","tag-drugs","tag-drugs-and-alcohol","tag-drugs-and-alcohol-pratitioner","tag-drugs-awareness","tag-harm-reduction","tag-harm-reduction-advice","tag-student-advice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/student\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/student\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/student\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/student\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/student\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4507"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/student\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4513,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/student\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4507\/revisions\/4513"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/student\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/student\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/student\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/student\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}