‘Drug quality tests at festivals are lifesavers’

DRUG users should be able to get substances tested to check their quality at North Wales clubs and festivals, says the region’s police boss.

Arfon Jones, North Wales’ Police and Crime and Commissioner, said allowing users to make sure drugs are safe to consume would save lives.

Mr Jones spoke after attending a meeting of the Parliamentary cross party group on drug reform, where think tank Volteface and charity The Loop presented a report on bringing in drug testing at nightspots across the UK.

Testing in city centres will be rolled out in parts of England this year by The Loop.

Mr Jones said: “I’ve been following what The Loop have been doing in testing at festivals around the UK. They’ve been quite successful in reducing harm to festival goers.

“It’s proven that drug testing does reduce harm and we need to do something about it to reduce drugrelated deaths.”

Mr Jones said he wanted to speak to the promoter of Portmeirion’s Festi- val No 6 about the possibility of introducing drug tests.

“If he thinks it’s worthwhile to do, then it’s a conversation we need to have with safety officers at Gwynedd council,” he said.

“Anything we can do to reduce harm caused by illegal drugs sold on the street would be a good thing. The most important thing for me is to save lives.

“The Loop offer a service in the big festivals in England where people can go and test a sample of their drugs and they can tell them what is in the drugs.

“A lot of the time, people will buy illegal drugs not knowing what’s in them. They might buy cocaine but it could turn out to be MDMA or it may turn out to be fentanyl.

“It will help that person to make an informed decision if they know what is in that drug they’ve purchased.

“One of the problems we find is that, when somebody does die in a nightclub, the tendency of the local authorities is to take action against club owners to close premises down.

“I think that’s a very short-sighted move. The whole problem goes underground into illegal festivals and things like that.”

Fiona Measham, director of The Loop and professor of criminology at Durham University, said: “After successfully introducing multi-agency safety testing (MAST) to UK festivals in 2016, the Loop is now planning on rolling this out to city centres in 2018.

“Members of the public can bring substances of concern for free, anonymous and non judgemental forensic analysis by PhD chemists.

“They then receive the results as part of a brief intervention by a healthcare professional with the overall aim of reducing drug-related harm.

“We found drug-related medical incidents at festivals were reduced by about 25% because we could identify contaminants and variations in strength that could cause problems, and then users could access prompt medical attention.

“A number of police forces have approached us to discuss the expansion of MAST to city centres this year, including in the West Midlands and Thames Valley.”

Henry Fisher of Volteface, one of the authors of the report, said: “While the UK’s drug market has rapidly evolved in recent years, measures taken to address harm have failed to keep pace and, as a result, our young people, public services, and muchloved venues are bearing the brunt of this failure.

“Everyone we spoke to for the report agrees more needs to be done to reduce drug harms. This report provides innovative solutions to tackle them, such as drug safety testing services.

“It is now up to councils, clubs and police to work together to implement them. I am delighted that the PCC for North Wales is leading calls for their implementation.”

The promoter of Festival No 6 has been asked to comment.