Drug Testing Kits

To help you feel safe, you can now access drug testing kits at LUU.

The kits will be available in the Advice Office, on the desk just to the right of that cabinet. No meeting is required for collection, but you’ll only be able to pick them up during Advice working hours: 9-5 on weekdays.

Thank you to our student community who supported this project – we were able to implement drug testing kits within the Union after the idea was brought up in Better Forums.

• After a 2019 survey conducted by LUU, it was determined that of those students who were taking drugs, 89% would test them if test kits were provided.
• November 2019 – Better Union idea submitted by the then Welfare Officer, Matt Port – ‘LUU should provide access to drug testing kits for students’.
• Following the forum, the idea went to a campus-wide referendum in December, with the motion passing with a 95% majority.
• Following the policy being deprioritized during the pandemic, the work was picked up again following a manifesto pledge made by Emily Tabern in her 2022 campaign for Wellbeing Officer.
• Research undergone by Emily and LUU into how testing kit schemes work at other SUs and the potential opportunities/challenges.
• Consultation with organizations such as The Loop and Forward Leeds.
• A working group was developed that included the SSDP society committee to collaborate on the design of the operating model.
• Discussions with University management to align the project with the University’s work towards an institution-wide harm reduction approach.
• Approach finalised in the summer of 2023 to be rolled out in autumn 2023.