Vancouver Coastal Health is trying to make it easier for drug users to find out if their products contain deadly fentanyl.

The health authority will begin offering take-home test strips for free, as early as next week.

"If people can identify fentanyl in their drugs then they might be able to make decisions about how they use those drugs that would keep them safer," said Vancouver Coastal Medical Health Officer Mark Lysyshyn.

Safer decisions include taking less of the drug or choosing not to use it at all.

The strips will be available next week at overdose prevention sites and St. Paul's Hospital.

VCH said it also plans to expand availability of the test strips to the Sunshine Coast and Sea-To-Sky region, because not all drug users use facilities like the Insite Supervised Injection Site.

"The best place to do drug checking might be in private when you're about to do drugs," Lysyshyn said.

Fentanyl was detected in 702 illicit drug overdose deaths across B.C. in 2019, according to the B.C. Coroners Service.

To use the strips, users take a small amount of the drug and mix it with a few drops of water. Within seconds of dipping the test strip inside, they know whether fentanyl is present.

Vancouver Coastal Health said nearly 90 per cent of opioids test positive for fentanyl at overdose prevention sites using the strips.