Nicole Ryan: Drug-testing at music festivals is a step on the right road 

Nicole Ryan: 'While drug-testing at festivals is a new concept here in Ireland, it has been implemented in several countries already and the benefits truly outweigh the negatives.'

It is fantastic to hear the HSE has finally started to enact what has been part of the National Drug & Alcohol Strategy for the last few years, drug testing at music festivals.

The 'back-end' approach being planned here is a step in the right direction, though not the ideal scenario. It involves festival-goers putting their drugs anonymously in an 'amnesty bin' in order to get them tested. 

The question is, where is the incentive to do this — drugs cost money, and young people don't tend to have a great deal of that. The drugs will not be returned and the results, it is thought, will be anonymised — so if you hand over a sample of your drugs, you will not find out there and then whether it is safe to take. 

There is a worry there may be cases where people will get into trouble or overdose before the testing is carried out or the drugs are identified, which is ultimately what you do not want at any festival to happen to any child, sibling, or friend. 

Another question that remains unclear is around how the information will be distributed to festival-goers to be careful of the findings or what drugs are currently in circulation. 

Will this be broadcast to the public such as with Erowid, which documents legal and illegal substances, including their intended and adverse effects and shares the knowledge and findings with the public on a weekly basis through its social media channels? 

If this is not done, then it’s a data collection exercise at best with no real life-saving measure.

Alex Ryan died after taking drugs at a house party in Cork in 2016.

For the back-end approach to become a success, there will need to be a chance for brief intervention or a place where people can come freely for harm-reduction information if they want to know it — I think it is crucial that this is implemented from the start or otherwise the stigma will remain and the HSE will find it very difficult for people to part ways with their substances. 

A 'chill out' tent will enable the HSE to provide education around substances to make sure people know drug-taking can still be incredibly harmful and while death is the ultimate side-effect of use, there are many others such as paranoia, agitation, and hallucinations.

The other question lies in the powders — not all drugs, especially those of the synthetic kind, are in pill form, meaning there can be a whole range of drugs  the HSE will miss on the pilot. 

An idea would be to put a call-out for people who may have powders to sample a 'bomb' or a small amount of powder that is wrapped in a cigarette paper or clingfilm to be disposed into the amnesty bins. 

The message of not being penalised for contributing to the pilot needs to be loud and clear for this to work, as at the moment it still is unclear where the gardaí will be positioned and should anybody see a guard near the bin then the chances of contribution to the pilot are erased.

While drug-testing at festivals is a new concept here in Ireland, it has been implemented in several countries already and the benefits truly outweigh the negatives — outside of all the practicalities like decreasing overdoses, saving taxpayers' money, alleviating the pressure on hospitals, and generally saving people’s lives, it gives the HSE an opportunity to engage with the harder-to-reach or recreational drug users for the first time. 

If this pilot works, and hopefully it will, a 'front-end' approach will be the next step. This means allowing people to hand over a sample of their drugs for testing with a 45-minute wait period during which they can be given harm-reduction information. 

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The Loop in the UK has had amazing success with this approach to festival drug-testing over the last number of years.

Ireland is finally stepping up to the mark and providing practical solutions to counteract the negative impacts drugs have on our communities. Drugs are and always will be a scourge on our society, but they are not going anywhere anytime soon. 

We will never eradicate them so we need to stop holding on to that notion. Burying our heads in the sand and pretending the problem is not there is what is killing people daily and not a single person or family is immune to drugs and their effects. 

This approach is the lesser of two evils and in my opinion it is always better to choose the devil you know than the devil you don’t.

- If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please click here for a list of support services.

• Nicole Ryan is the founder of Alex's Adventure. Her younger brother Alex died after taking drugs at a house party in Cork City in 2016. He was 18