HSE drug testing plans fail to get Garda green light

The HSE put separate proposals to An Garda Síochána to run pilot drug testing services at two music festivals this summer, but failed to get the green light for either, the Irish Examiner can reveal.

The HSE needed the permission of gardaí to operate a drug testing service because of the legal issues in relation to the possession, handling or disposal of illegal drugs.

It is thought that legal concerns were behind the reasons why gardaí were unable to give the go-ahead.

HSE's head of addiction services, Dr Eamon Keenan, said: “We did submit proposals to gardaí regarding pilot testing at two festivals. For legal reasons we were unable to progress them.”

The first proposal was to set up a limited pilot drug testing service for the Body and Soul festival, at Ballinlough Castle, Co Westmeath, in June.

The first proposal was to test drugs that had been seized by gardaí at the festival.

A formal Garda response to the application turned down the proposal, saying it was unable to progress it at this time but saying they would look at it again next year.

Dr Keenan added: “Gardaí felt that for legal reasons testing might interfere with the chain of custody for seized samples and exhibits in any possible prosecution.”

A second proposal was submitted, again by Dr Keenan, in early September in relation to the Boxed Off dance music festival in Co Meath at the end of that month.

In this proposal, the intention was to test drugs that had been given up voluntarily and anonymously by festival-goers and placed in so-called amnesty bins.

That application was sent by senior gardaí to the legal section at Garda HQ, but the HSE failed to get a response by the time the Boxed Off festival took place.

“We are still awaiting the response from gardaí, they are still considering it,” Dr Keenan said.

A Garda statement to the Irish Examiner said: “In relation to the first event, it was felt by local Garda management that it was not feasible for that particular event.

In relation to the second festival, on receipt of the proposal from the HSE, An Garda Síochána sought legal advice. It has received that legal advice and that advice is under consideration by relevant senior management.

The HSE plan was that the testing services would operate in conjunction with festival organisers and toxicology and biology experts from Sligo IT, who would conduct the actual testing.

The HSE was going hire the necessary machines in from Britain.

Both proposals were for what are called “back of the house” drug testing, rather than “front of house” where people can provide a sample of drugs to a testing service at a festival.

The HSE sees drug testing as an extension of their harm reduction programme, amid alarm across Europe at the high strength of pills and powders and also at alternative, and much more powerful substances such as PMA/PMMA, being sold as ecstasy.

The proposal was to check the contents and strengths of the substances and if necessary issue warnings to potential users.

The issue of drug testing and amnesty bins are currently being examined by a working group set up under the new National Drugs Strategy.

That group is due to hold its second meeting next week.

Dr Keenan said he hoped to have the issued addressed at this committee: “We hope to have recommendations and an action plan for the festival season 2020, which kicks off in May, so it's a tight time frame.”

He added: “We are happy to work with gardaí regarding proposed drug testing. They have shown a strong interest in the area and there is a good working relationship and we want to keep that going.”

Gardaí are investigating two deaths linked to ecstasy this year, including that of Jack Downey, a 19-year-old Tipperary man who died after taking the drug at the Indiependence festival in Mitchelstown, Co Cork, in early August.

There was another death suspected of being linked to ecstasy. There were also a number of non-fatal poisonings, including of a young man in Co Galway and another of a girl at Electric Picnic in early September.

In an interview last August with the Irish Examiner, Detective Superintendent Brian Woods of the Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau said they were due to receive a proposal from the HSE through the working group on drug testing.

He said top of the Garda's concerns was the potential normalisation of drug use and whether or not testing was legally permitted.

“We have been speaking to the HSE and we are awaiting a proposal from the HSE in regard to what they see as a viable option at festivals,” he said.

Obviously when we talk about the likes of pill testing there's a lot of legal issues there, but we also have to look at whether this amounts to the promotion or normalisation of drug use.

He said they had already seen with the supervised injecting centre that gardaí would have to look at the “legalities” of it and how it would work.