Drug Checking Quarterly Report (Q1 2026): Mid-Atlantic, USA

Partnerships between the Center for Forensic Science Research and Education (CFSRE), the Philadelphia Department of Public Health (PDPH), Montgomery County Health and Human Services (MontCo), and Pennsylvania Groundhogs Group (PAG) were established to accurately assess the drug supply in the Mid-Atlantic region, epi-centered around Philadelphia, PA.

Summary and Notable Findings:

• 557 samples were tested from January 1 to March 31, 2026.
• Quantitative results for opioid samples over the trailing 12 months are included in this report for the measured amounts of fentanyl, medetomidine, and combined local anesthetics (e.g., lidocaine, procaine, and tetracaine).
• Fentanyl adulteration shifts continued: alpha-2 agonists were common, in favor of medetomidine, and local anesthetics became more favored towards lidocaine with a reduction in procaine and tetracaine detections.
• For the first time in these reports, detections made only from the more sensitive technique liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-QTOF-MS) are reported for observations of novel psychoactive substances (NPS).
• The number of carfentanil observations aligns with past quarters—the apparent increase is likely due to the inclusion of LC-QTOF-MS results in this report. There were no detections of substances belonging to the orphine class of synthetic opioids.
• There was an increasing variety of the NPS benzodiazepines observed in Q1 2026.

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