Pitfalls of drug testing

SIR – The suggestion (Comment, May 29) that the on-site testing of drugs at festivals will reduce the total harm from drugs is wrong. Such a process gives the misleading impression that only impurities or high-strength drugs can cause harm.

MDMA (Ecstasy) kills at random, which is why it rightly remains a Class A drug. It destabilises the body’s temperature control mechanism and individual reactions are just that: individual and unpredictable.

Novice users, perhaps persuaded to try drugs for the first time at a festival on the grounds that “they have been tested”, will doubtless go on to use more drugs (untested) outside their first festival, putting themselves at vastly increased long-term risk.

The obvious end destination of this slippery slope is legalisation of all drugs, with much more use and much more total harm. David Raynes

National Drug Prevention Alliance Slough, Berkshire