Welsh Emerging Drugs & Identification of Novel Substances Project

WEDINOS began life back in 2009 following an increase in presentations to an Emergency Department in Gwent where the patient had clearly consumed drugs, but the Clinicians (and patients) were unsure what had been consumed. A team of three: Dr David Caldicott (Emergency Dept Consultant), Dr Alun Hutchings (Toxicology) and Dr Andrew Westwell (Pharmaceutical chemistry) devised an informal mechanism whereby samples of unknown / unidentified drugs were provided by patients and tested in Cardiff Toxicology Laboratories, University Hospital Llandough. The drugs were profiled and a process of mapping trends and harms was initiated.