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    What's in illegal drugs? A UCLA team takes testing to the streets to find out

    LOS ANGELES -- Under a tent pitched in a darkened parking lot in Los Angeles, a 21-year-old man handed pills to Ruby Romero. "Can you test all of them?" he asked. "I'd rather be safe than sorry." Romero, a UCLA project director, started to ask questions for an ongoing study as the young man shifted in the evening cold from foot to foot in his sandals. He told Romero that the vividly orange ...
    by Emily Alpert Reyes, Los Angeles Times Aug 01, 2023 5 minutes
    UCLA Project Director Ruby Romero, left, and UCLA Project Manager Caitlin Molina give a demonstration of their research operation for a UCLA study of how they test street drugs in Los Angeles on March 22, 2023.

    LOS ANGELES -- Under a tent pitched in a darkened parking lot in Los Angeles, a 21-year-old man handed pills to Ruby Romero.

    "Can you test all of them?" he asked. "I'd rather be safe than sorry."

    Romero, a UCLA project director, started to ask questions for an ongoing study as the young man shifted in the evening cold from foot to foot in his sandals. He told Romero that the vividly orange pills, which were shaped like rounded triangles, had been sold to him as ecstasy.

    But before he headed to a rave in San Bernardino, the man wanted to make sure that he wasn't accidentally giving something else to his brother or his brother's girlfriend. His biggest worry was fentanyl, the powerful synthetic opioid that has driven up overdose deaths in Los Angeles County.

    "I don't want that on

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