Province seeks new home for Saskatoon drug testing machine – CBC
Spectrometer was operated by Prairie Harm Reduction to test illicit drugs before the facility closed
Apr 16, 2026
Saskatchewan’s government is looking for a new home for the gizmo used by Prairie Harm Reduction to test illicit street drugs in Saskatoon.
The fate of the drug testing machine, which played a major role in toxic drug alerts issued by the Saskatchewan Ministry of Health, remains uncertain after a financial crisis forced PHR to close its doors last week.
“We’re still working on that,” Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Lori Carr told reporters in Regina Wednesday.
PHR had an exemption from narcotics laws issued by Health Canada to operate a supervised drug consumption site at its location on 20th Street in Pleasant Hill.
That exemption also applied to operation of the Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer to test illegal drugs for contamination. Any agency that started using the machine and testing illegal substances would also need a Health Canada exemption.
