A free drug testing service is visiting Wānaka next Friday (September 27), the first in a series of clinics around the district between now and next June.

The service, brought to Wānaka by KnowYourStuffNZ, allows people to find out whether their drugs have any unexpected ingredients in them before consumption.

The clinic will take place at the Lake Wānaka Centre between 4pm and 8pm.

KnowYourStuffNZ said it would be “free, legal, discreet drug checking” with “no names, no judgement, just information.”

The drug testing organisation, which is supported by health services, NGOs, and NZ Police, was formed in 2015 with an ethos of harm reduction - a set of practical strategies and ideas aimed at reducing the negative consequences associated with drug use.

KnowYourStuffNZ general manager Casey Spearin told the Wānaka App the organisation had received a grant from Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) to run a handful of clinics in the district over the next nine months.

“We chose early September in Queenstown and late September in Wānaka to try and catch the end of the ski season and the partygoers that travel into the region during the ski season,” she said.

“We will have another pop-up in the area before New Year, dates and location to be confirmed. And we will have a number of clinics in early-mid 2025.”

Two KnowYourStuffNZ clinics have been held in the district in the past, in December 2022 and December 2023.

In the 2020-21 season only 69 percent of substances tested by KnowYourStuffNZ across New Zealand were what people thought they were.

All KnowYourStuffNZ services are legal, free and confidential.

Find more information about KnowYourStuffNZ and the upcoming clinic here.

PHOTO: Supplied