Designing Drug Combination Displays
Drug combination displays help people who use drugs, pharmacologists and healthcare practitioners collaborate and share specialist knowledge to anticipate the risk of consuming a particular drug combination. The intersection of substances on each axis is coded to signify the risk of consuming that combination.
Tripsit’s Guide to Drug Combinations is likely the most widely known drug combination display. This display currently lists 25 different popular recreational substances, as well as some common medications. As well as being accessed extensively online, this display is printed off as large banners and displayed out the front of harm reduction services worldwide. As well as containing useful harm reduction information, Tripsit’s Guide to Drug Combinations is one of the most effective ways to initiate conversations about safer drug use.
Inspired by Tripsit’s Guide to Drug Combinations chart, The Entheogen Combination Matrix, was an Entheogenesis Australis project lead by Dr Liam Engel with the help of PRISM and IzWoz. The Project lists common, natural sources of psychoactive substances along two axes of a graph. Unlike the Tripsit display, EGA’s matrix display presents substance names alongside images, scientific and common names of their environmental sources. These additional inclusions aim to enhance environmental awareness and thus improve conservation and sustainability.
But, Liam has even bigger dreams for the future of drug combination displays. Liam is currently developing a combined version of these two displays, that is coded for the quality of evidence used to assess combination risks, as well as assessing the risk itself. This is achieved by coding the citations used to assess the risk as clinical, theoretical, and anecdotal. Viewers will be able to click the intersection of two substances to see a reference list containing these citations, where they will also be able to critique the risk rating and/or submit additional evidence.
If you’d like to hear more about the Entheogen Combination Matrix, Dr Liam Engel’s vision for the future of drug combinations displays developed and implications for harm reduction, head over to our YouTube channel, EntheoTV and watch Designing drug combination displays: Enter the Entheogen Combination Matrix.
