Adam Auctor Podcast Transcript
Adam Auctor joins host Brian Thomas on The Digital Executive Podcast.
Welcome to Coruzant Technologies, Home of The Digital Executive podcast.
Brian Thomas: Welcome to the Digital Executive. Today’s guest is Adam Auctor. Adam Auctor is the founder and CEO of Transparency and The Bunk Police, leading test kit innovation and educational outreach in the harm reduction industry, which is a hybrid for profit and non-profit entity.
Auctor is a creative visionary, investigative filmmaker, and harm reduction activist in the drug use space.
Well, good afternoon, Adam. Welcome to the show!
Adam Auctor: Hi. Thank you!
Brian Thomas: Appreciate you joining, jumping on. I know you’re out on the East Coast there in North Carolina, me in Kansas City. So, I always like to, it’s kind of my focal point of the day every day is, is getting on and meeting somebody new.
So, I appreciate it and appreciate you jumping on. So, Adam, jumping into your first question, can you tell us about the origin of the Bunk Police and what inspired you to focus on harm reduction and test kit innovation in the drug use space?
Adam Auctor: Right. Yeah. So, you know, we’ve been doing this for about 13 years and the idea first came to me while I was in in college.
So, I noticed that some of the people around me were taking specifically MDMA or ecstasy and having drastically different effects from what I had read should happen. And so. You know, I looked into some options as, as far as, you know, trying to tell what exactly it was that they were taking because I knew it was something different and come to find out after using some police supply test kits that I ordered from, you know, a forensic website.
That’s, you know, for official use only they sent them to me. Anyways, come to find out it was actually a bath salts or synthetic cathinones that these people were taking. And so that really sparked an interest in me and, you know, what else is going on in the drug market. So, I started traveling to music festivals and doing testing for free just to kind of uncover everything else that was going on.
And I found that yeah, You know, a very large majority of the MDMA at that time was bath salts. You know, there were also significant issues with every other substance on the market. LSD, ketamine, cocaine, you know, all of that. And so, you know, we went from those moments to. You know, hiring a chemist and actually ended up dropping out of business school in order to pursue this idea.
And, you know, we started developing test kits. And so, we, we went from our 1st test kit that year to now we have about 11 different types of test kits and, you know, tens over 10,000 hours of research in the field.
Brian Thomas: That’s amazing. I appreciate you taking the time to delve into this a little bit more when you were, there might be a lot of information out there, but it may not always be correct or accurate.
And the fact that you went in and started to do some deeper dive into the research is really appreciated because there’s a lot of people that are struggling with, with addiction and health problems because of some of the substances out there. So, I appreciate that, Adam.
Adam, with test kits being a key innovation for harm reduction, what have been some of the most significant advancements in testing technology and how have they impacted your work?
Adam Auctor: Sure. Yeah, there are two main advancements that have come along since we started and, you know, the first and probably most impactful is just the application of. Antibody based test strips for detecting substances.
And, you know, previously they had been used mostly to aid in urinalysis tests. So, you know, being able to test somebody for, you know, employment or probation or something like that. And around 2017, we started to realize that they could also be used in order to test substances before people purchase them.
And they are just incredibly accurate and insensitive down to, in some cases, the picogram, which is one billionth of a gram. So that’s been a huge thing for us. You know, we’ve applied that specifically to fentanyl and fentanyl is such a powerful substance and is usually found in such minute amounts that, you know, these things have, have really changed the game as far as detecting that specifically and, you know, other substances as well, like xylazine and A few others that have come into the market since then, and the other advancement that we’ve seen is, you know, in the application of a pretty well-known technique called thin layer chromatography.
And, you know, we, we really base our efforts on enabling people to test their substances at home themselves in a private environment and be as accurate as possible in doing so. And so, this thin layer chromatography method allows people to separate out mixed substances. So, if you were to have, say a cocaine and caffeine and methamphetamine all in one sample, you would be able to separate those out, test them individually, and then also quantify them.
And essentially being able to tell how much of each is in your sample. And that’s just been a very powerful tool for our customers.
Brian Thomas: I appreciate you delving into that a little bit more for our audience, you know, fentanyl is one of the biggest challenges here in this country, as you know, and I really like the fact that you can test down to that micro level.
And I can’t remember what you said, pedigree, but yeah, that’s just awesome. And I appreciate the work that you’re doing because we’re trying to make the world a better place and get people back and healthy. I appreciate that. And Adam, you’ve also positioned yourself as an investigative filmmaker. How do you blend filmmaking and harm reduction activism to raise awareness about the risk associated with drug use?
Adam Auctor: Right. So, you know, some of these problems are relatively unbelievable, you know, especially to the people that are affected by them. And so, you know, we really need to show them firsthand what’s happening on, you know, on the ground level. And so that has come into play with two different documentaries that we’ve released over the years.
The first was called what’s in my baggie. And we, you know, essentially went to events and mostly music events and did just, you know, a ton of testing, you know, in people’s campsites and around the grounds of music festivals and whatnot. And, you know, we’re able to capture their reaction to the results in real time.
And, you know, that kind of added. You know, not just information about how, how bad the problem is, but also let our audience see just like, you know, the, the human problem as well and how shocking it can be to, you know, receive these results. And, yeah, it was just very, very impactful in that moment. The 2nd documentary that we’ve put out, and we have several additional ones plans in 2025.
So it kind of focused on a different aspect of the drug market, and that was specifically cartel run pharmacies in Mexico. And so, you know, the Mexican cartels have kind of infiltrated many different systems in Mexico. And they’ve taken over many pharmacies as well to the point where they are selling fentanyl instead of, you know, prescription painkillers and, you know, also methamphetamine instead of prescription ADHD medication, like, like Adderall.
And so we were able to go down there with hidden cameras and, you know, show the interaction between myself and these pharmacists. And, you know, also take the samples that we acquired during that time and send them to our laboratory for, you know, advanced analysis. And what we uncovered was absolutely shocking.
As it turns out, the majority of the oxycodone samples down there are actually fentanyl, or fentanyl and xylazine. And we did find that every single one of the ADHD medication samples, specifically Adderall, They were methamphetamine and so, you know, that’s just really eye opening to our audience because, you know, these are in many cases licensed pharmacies and this effort had a large part in having 54 of these pharmacies shut down by the Mexican Navy in Mexico.
So, we’re pretty proud of that.
Brian Thomas: That’s amazing. I love these stories. Where people and again, I know it’s not always a great place to travel sometimes in some of these areas, but for you to go out, have the courage, build this documentary so that you can educate the public. I think that’s awesome. And obviously we’re going to save lives that way as well.
So, appreciate that. And Adam last question of the day, the Bunk Police has a strong focus on safety at music festivals and events. How do you see the role of festival organizers evolving in the future with regard to harm reduction efforts?
Adam Auctor: Right. Well, that’s actually a pretty complex, complex question. So, this is something that we’ve been dealing with for years.
The event promoters and production companies have a bunch of, you know, Very intricate hurdles to overcome in allowing test kits and harm reduction at their offense. There are legal hurdles There’s a piece of legislation called the rave act that has been a big issue for us along the way And you know it more or less indicates that if you allow a drug involved premises allow You know drug dealers and drug users to operate on your premises That’s you know, you can be charged with crimes beyond just you know the possession or or distribution of drugs, you know all the way up to 40 Property seizure, very large fines, and that can be applied not just to the promoters and the production companies, but also to anybody that works at the event.
And so, you know, this piece of legislation was passed back in 2002 and has only been applied, you know, one or two times over the years, but these production companies and promoters are just scared to death that it’s going to happen to them. But as we’re seeing, you know, fentanyl test strips specifically being distributed by the federal government and also state level agencies in mass to the tune of millions and millions of these things being given away for free.
The way that the, the government looks at these sorts of events and looks at communities that are drug involved, such as music festivals or, you know, homeless communities and whatnot has changed drastically. And so, we are making a documentary this next year. We’ve started filming already. That specifically talks about this issue and what we need to do in order to amend or repeal the rave act to allow promoters to more easily allow these things to be at their events.
And so, you know, beyond that, there are also issues when it comes to liability, you know, and insurance and whatnot. And so, we’re also addressing those hurdles as well and trying to you know, work with the production companies to figure out what other issues that they faced along the way. So that we can come to some sort of an agreement where they can, at the very least, allow the vendors that were that come to these events to carry testing products.
And at the most, I mean, we would love to follow in the footsteps of other countries, such as Canada and Portugal and the UK and have actual laboratories set up at these events where people can bring their substance, have it tested and get the results there in real time. That is the eventual goal. And believe it or not behind closed doors, that is already happening in many places in the U.S. it’s just difficult for it to be done publicly.
Brian Thomas: Wow. That’s just amazing. I appreciate you making these efforts, getting the word out there. And I know that there’s a huge culture that we obviously have to change. And this is not something you can do overnight. But I think it’s so important that there’s more awareness brought to it. And then, of course, the safety aspect of it.
So I really, really do appreciate everything we talked about today, Adam, truly do. And Adam, it was such a pleasure having you on today. And I look forward to speaking with you real soon.
Adam Auctor: Absolutely. Thanks again.
Brian Thomas: Bye for now.
Adam Auctor Podcast Transcript. Listen to the audio on the guest’s podcast page.
