Computer slung over their shoulders, a couple in their thirties arrive at the “Before” analysis center, organized every Thursday in Paris, to find out what their products contain: white heroin and brown heroin. In a relaxed atmosphere, music and cupcakes, the specialized educator Arthur Morel welcomes them.
“Some users already have the stress of coming with a drug, of being arrested, so we try to put them at ease,” explains Grégory Pfau, pharmacist specializing in psychoactive substances and co-founder of the Analyze Ton Prod' (ATP) network.
This ongoing analysis is held in the Risk Reduction Reception and Support Center for drug users (Caarud), located in the 10th arrondissement of Paris.
Authorized since 2016, drug analysis is aimed at all adult consumers wishing to find out about their products “to be able to make informed choices about their consumption”.
“I am not allowed to touch the product, you are the one who will do it”, announces Arthur Morel. The couple crushes the heroin powder in a mortar. Twenty milligrams are enough to detect the different psychoactive substances present and their concentration. The couple believes their heroin is 70% pure.
“All we have to do is turn the bike”, laughs a “Before” regular at the corner of a corridor.
A dual mission of prevention and health monitoring
In the laboratory of a few square meters, Maxime Triguel, toxicologist, explains how the high-performance liquid chromatograph (HPLC) works. The machine, one meter high, allows the different molecules to be separated in just 12 minutes.
The computer displays a curve of six peaks, corresponding to a drug from the benzodiazepine family, a depressant, such as heroin. “The cocktail of several depressant products presents a fatal risk of slowing down the nervous system”warns Maxime Triguel. The sample will therefore be sent to the French Observatory of Drugs and Addictive Tendencies (OFDT) and the couple will be notified of the results by SMS.
Created in 2021, the Analyze Ton Prod association is a partner of the OFDT's national identification system for toxicants and substances. “We monitor together the circulation of new and atypical products”, explains Grégory Pfau.
“I really want to know: have I ruined my body?”
“Mimi” comes to have her products analyzed for the first time at “Before”. The 27-year-old engineer says he consumes “every weekend”in the evening or at a rave party.
This shy guy raises doubts about MDMA “a little strong, maybe a little cut”of the “cardiac fatigue”, difficult sleep.
-“I should have come before”, recognizes this suburbanite who lives far from the laboratory. “I really want to know: have I ruined my body?”
“Cocaine, MDMA and ketamine are becoming more and more concentrated,” notes Grégory Pfau. This is evidenced by the sample of ketamine from a 29-year-old user analyzed a few minutes ago: concentrated at 92%.
“Users often come after feeling negative effects. They think it’s mixed with other things, but in fact it’s dosed at more than 80%.”continues the pharmacist.
“a mistake of 30 milligrams on an almost pure product can cause very different effects”
“I often suggest that they weigh everything they have on them. Many people are surprised by the scales. They realize that they were going to consume more than they had planned, because a bag of 100 milligrams can weigh 70 or 140 in reality.”
About ketamine dosed at 92%, “an error of 30 milligrams on an almost pure product can cause very different effects”, he warned.
Voluntary product analyzes by consumers are increasingly numerous in France: 4,400 in 2024, compared to 2,126 in 2022, according to figures provided by ATP.
As for overseas, a first laboratory should open there soon. Quentin Gorrias and Armelle Crosse, from the Réunion prevention association Réseau Oté!, are just passing through Paris to train.
“People are worried” and are asking for a device to analyze their products, because new synthetic drugs are circulating at the island's festivals where the association already does prevention, explains Quentin Gorrias.
“Unfortunately, there have to be accidents for the public authorities to mobilize,” he regrets.
On January 17 in particular, an alert was issued after a heroin overdose containing a synthetic opioid in Yvelines.
