With a computer slung over their shoulders, a couple in their thirties arrive at the "Before" analysis center, held every Thursday in Paris, to find out what their products contain: white heroin and brown heroin. In a relaxed atmosphere, with music and cookies, the specialized educator Arthur Morel receives them.
"Some users already have the stress of coming with drugs, of being arrested, so we try to put them at ease," explains Grégory Pfau, a pharmacist specializing in psychoactive substances and co-founder of the Analyse Ton Prod' (ATP) network.
This analysis center is held in the Center for Reception and Support for Risk Reduction 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 “in order to make informed choices about their consumption.”
"I'm not allowed to touch the product, you're going to do it," Arthur Morel announces. 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 that their heroin is pure at 70%.
"All we have to do is get the bike running," jokes a "Before" regular as he turns a corner in the corridor.
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, can separate the different molecules in just 12 minutes.
The computer displays a curve of six peaks, corresponding to a drug from the benzodiazepine family, a depressant, like 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 Analyse Ton Prod association is a partner of the OFDT's National Identification System for Toxic Substances. "We monitor the circulation of new and atypical products together," explains Grégory Pfau.
– “Cardiac fatigue” –
"Mimi" comes to have her products analyzed for the first time at "Before". The 27-year-old engineer says she consumes "every weekend", in the evening or at rave parties.
This very shy man mentions doubts about MDMA "a bit strong, perhaps a bit cut", "cardiac fatigue", difficulty sleeping.
"I should have come sooner," admits the suburbanite who lives far from the lab. "I really want to know: Did I ruin my body?"
"Cocaine, MDMA and ketamine are increasingly concentrated," notes Gregory Pfau. This is evidenced by the ketamine sample 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 cut with other things, but in fact it's dosed at more than 80%," the pharmacist continues.
"I often suggest that they weigh everything they have on them. Many are surprised in front of the scale. They realize that they were going to consume more than they had planned, because a 100 milligram bag can weigh 70 or 140 in reality."
Regarding ketamine dosed at 92%, "an error of 30 milligrams on a nearly pure product can lead to very different effects," he warns.
Voluntary product analyses by consumers are increasing in number in France: 4,400 in 2024, compared to 2,126 in 2022, according to figures provided by ATP.
As for overseas territories, a first laboratory should open there soon. Quentin Gorrias and Armelle Crosse, from the Réunion prevention association Réseau Oté!, are just passing through Paris for training.
"People are worried" and are asking for a system to analyze their products, because new synthetic drugs are circulating at parties on the island where the association already does prevention work, explains Quentin Gorrias.
"Unfortunately, there have to be accidents for the public authorities to take action," he regrets.
On January 17, in particular, an alert was issued following an overdose of heroin containing a synthetic opioid in Yvelines.
English 
French