HSE to trial drug testing pilot at Electric Picnic festival

Electric Picnic is an Irish arts and music festival based in Stradbally Hall, County Laois

An anonymous drug testing trial will take place at the Electric Picnic music festival in the Republic of Ireland.

Festival goers will be encouraged to place drugs into "surrender bins" at the County Laois venue so they can be tested for potency and contamination.

Health officials will warn the public if they detect particularly dangerous drugs in circulation at the gig.

They stressed that drugs remain illegal but said they were taking a "pragmatic" approach to protect public safety.

The testing scheme, run through the Health Service Executive (HSE), is part of the Irish government's Safer Nightlight campaign.

How does it work?

The bins will be inside medical tents at the venue at Stradbally Hall, according to Prof Eamon Keenan, the HSE's national clinical lead for addiction services.

Anyone who suffers an "adverse side-effect" after taking drugs can place the substances in the surrender bins anonymously.

"That will then be taken away to our lab which is on site at the festival. We'll be able to analyse the content of the bin and any tablets that are discarded," he explained.

"If something untoward - for example very high strength MDMA or ecstasy shows up, or a drug which is contaminated with a number of other substances shows up - we'll be able to take a picture of that drug and circulate it around social media and with the event organisers."

He added that the aim is to get a message to people at the event to say: "Don't take this drug, it's dangerous."

The bins will also be used to test drugs which have been dropped by accident or discarded by people worried about being caught carrying illegal substances.

The legal position

The HSE's initiative has the support of An Garda Síochána (Irish police service).

But are the authorities not concerned that such an approach may appear to normalise or condone drug taking?

"Our message is really, really clear that it's safer not to take drugs at all. Drugs remain illegal and that's the Guards' position as well so if you're caught in possession of drugs at a festival by An Garda Síochána you will face prosecution," Prof Keenan said.

"But with all of that going on, we know that people still do take drugs at festivals... we're pragmatic enough to understand that it does happen and like the Guards we're interested in public safety and this is an initiative which we think will contribute to the health and safety of attendees."

'Pent-up excitement'

Electric Picnic was established as an annual festival in 2004 but it could not take place in 2020 and 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

It will return on 2 September, headlined by Artic Monkeys and Snow Patrol and tickets have sold out.

Prof Keenan said it will attract a lot of young people who have never been to festivals before and he is concerned they may be at additional risk.

"There's sort of all this pent-up excitement and anticipation around these events.

"Our concern is that there have been emerging drug trends right across Europe, riskier substances are appearing and people need to be educated and informed about this."