Is testing recreational drugs taken to festivals a positive step?
Festivals urged to test safety of illegal drugs
At least six UK music festivals are expected to allow people to test their illegal drugs this summer.
It’s after a number of drug-related deaths in recent years.
Reading and Leeds Festivals and a number of other live music events are aiming to introduce the scheme with the support of local police forces.
Melvin Benn from Festival Republic said “We talked about it during the summer of last year and the reality is that I took a decision that unless and until the National Police Chiefs’ Council supported the principle of it, it was difficult for us to move forward on it.”
Festival-goers will be able to take their drugs to a testing tent run by The Loop, an organisation which usually conducts forensic testing of drugs seized by police.
“If they have bought the drugs, smuggled them on-site and are planning to take them anyway, we can intervene and test and there’s some chance they might then not take them.” says Fiona Measham, head of testing service The Loop.
In a test last summer, someone was selling ecstasy tablets that turned out to be 100% concrete, there was a case of some anti-malaria drugs being powdered up and sold as cocaine.
West Yorkshire Police assistant chief constable Andy Battle, who leads the policing operation at Leeds, said they were “looking at the possibility of supporting the festival’s organisers”.
“We can never condone the use of illegal drugs, but we recognise that some people will continue to take them and we need to adapt our approach in the interests of public safety.”
At the moment no one knows what is in drugs circulated at festivals so this initiative is being introduced to minimise the harmful effects of these illegal substances.
What are your views? Do you have a concern about recreational drug use with teenagers that you know? Is this initiative a positive step in trying to reduce the harmful effects of these substances? What is the message being given to teenagers?
