Drug sellers' use of drug checking services with Pablo Gonzalez NietoDrug sellers' use of drug checking services with Pablo Gonzalez Nieto
Addiction Audio
Dr Elle Wadsworth speaks with Pablo Gonzalez-Nieto about how drug sellers use drug checking services during the overdose crisis in British Columbia. Their conversation reflects on challenging stereotypes, the role of advanced testing tools, and the potential for sellers to support harm reduction within their communities.
21:05•3 Jul 2026
Rethinking Drug Dealers: Drug Checking, Harm Reduction and an Unstable Supply
Episode Overview
- Drug checking services give people concrete information about the contents and strength of unregulated drugs, using a mix of technologies from test strips to advanced mass spectrometry.
- Drug sellers use these services to check multiple samples, confirm how they have cut fentanyl, and assess whether their products match what they were told by suppliers.
- Findings suggest drug sellers often overestimate their knowledge of the supply, with many samples showing unexpected additional substances despite sellers’ confidence.
- Sellers can act as key information nodes, passing scientific test results into informal networks and potentially supporting upstream harm reduction.
- Pablo urges people to question stereotypes about those who use and sell drugs, and points to the ongoing impact of criminalisation and colonialism, especially on Indigenous communities.
“Drug dealers and people who sell drugs are not like the bad actors… they’re also being impacted by the unregulated supply.”
How can compelling narratives motivate and inspire others? This conversation on Addiction Audio brings together research, lived experience and frontline harm reduction work to look at drug checking from a side that rarely gets airtime: drug sellers. Host Dr Elle Wadsworth chats with Pablo Gonzalez-Nieto from the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, who works as a harm reduction provider and drug checking technician in British Columbia.
Pablo explains what drug checking services actually do – from old-school reagent drops to high-end tools like Fourier-transform infrared spectrometers and a paper spray mass spectrometer that can estimate concentrations of substances down to tiny percentages. You’ll hear how this technology helps track a fast-changing, unregulated opioid market where “heroin has disappeared” and street opioids are often complex mixes of fentanyl, benzos, sedatives, caffeine and sugars.
The heart of the episode is Pablo’s study on drug sellers who use a drug checking service. He challenges the common “evil dealer” stereotype, pointing out that sellers are also trying to stay alive and protect their communities. The data show that many sellers submit multiple samples, check whether they’ve “cut” fentanyl correctly, and often get unexpected results – they think they know what’s in their supply, but the tests reveal extra substances.
This suggests that sellers, like people who use drugs, are at the mercy of an unstable market. You’ll also hear about the potential for drug sellers to act as crucial information hubs, passing scientifically based knowledge into informal drug networks, and about the wider context of policy, funding, and the ongoing overdose crisis in British Columbia.
Pablo closes by asking people to question their biases about those who use and sell drugs, and by highlighting how the war on drugs and colonialism continue to shape who is harmed most. If your work, study or lived experience touches harm reduction, this conversation might prompt you to rethink who you see as a “risk” – and who might actually be a key part of the solution.
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