UK festivals to set up free drug tests to reduce deaths

Festivalgoers who want to take drugs with them can have their substances tested as part of a controversial new scheme being run this summer.

A charity is offering on-site lab testing of illegal drugs like cocaine and ecstasy to make sure they aren't mixed with potentially lethal chemicals.

The service, at the Kendal Calling festival in Cumbria, promises users they won't be arrested if they bring their drugs for testing.

Organisers claim to have found crushed up malaria medication, insecticide and even concrete in pills being sold.

Professor Fiona Measham, director of The Loop, said the charity was offering a "pragmatic, harm reduction initiative".

"We accept that some people will get drugs on site and some people will be planning to take them so what we're doing is trying to address any potential health problems.

"This is a focus on public health rather than on criminal justice."

About one in five users ask the charity to dispose of substances after they have been tested, Prof Measham said.

But critics argue that it could lead to an increase in drug use.

David Raynes of the National Drug Prevention Alliance told Sky News: "This normalises drug taking. Some people go to festivals for the first time and take drugs for the first time.

"The drugs they take will not be drugs that have been tested because during the testing process the drugs get destroyed so there will be other drugs available to them.

"Testing doesn't make the drugs that people might take at a festival safe."

One man, who did not want to be identified, brought an ecstasy tablet for examination. Results showed that it was pure.

He said: "I read some bad reports about the pills as well as some good ones, so I decided it would be best for me that I have the reassurance in my mind to know that I've come here, have it tested and know for sure.

"It just gives me peace of mind to know that what I'm taking is safe instead of just taking anything."

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The testing comes after a number of drug-related deaths at UK festivals in recent years.

In 2015, Christian Pay died after taking a ecstasy table at Kendal Calling festival in Cumbria.

The 18-year-old was rushed to hospital having taken a blue tablet that police later said had led to the hospitalisation of several other people.

Three men were eventually convicted for selling the drug.

Six festivals, including Reading and Leeds, are to allow on-site drug testing this year in a attempt to highlight potentially lethal batches of drugs.