A new bid to reduce the risk of dodgy recreational drugs - done with the help of Electric Picnic revellers - has revealed how the potency of pills can vary hugely.
Ireland's first ever "back of house" drug testing pilot programme - which took place at Electric Picnic last month - is part of the HSE ‘Safer Nightlife’ harm reduction campaign.
The aim of the pilot was to access, test and identify substances in a festival setting, alert the public, harm reduction services and onsite medics to any dangerous substances.
Read More: HSE issue urgent warning over drug at Electric Picnic after dangerous test result
The pilot involved people anonymously surrendering substances in HSE bins which were rapidly analysed by the HSE National Drug Treatment Centre Laboratory using an on-site temporary laboratory.
In total, 46 samples of drugs were surrendered to the HSE over the three day period.
That led to the HSE issuing three different risk communications relating to concerns around a particular MDMA product, high strength powders and crystals and the emergence of a new substance called 3-CMC.
Professor Eamon Keenan, HSE National Clinical Lead Addiction Services, said: “While this report represents a relatively small number of samples numerically, we must recognise the importance of this pilot project and our findings.
“The pilot is a real example of cross sectoral collaboration, where all agencies agreed on the need to collaborate to identify emerging drug trends, with an aim of protecting the health of people attending the event.
“This programme is the first of its kind in Ireland, whereby the HSE accessed substances from people who use drugs to conduct real-time analysis for the purpose of sharing risk communications at a festival.
"As a result, the HSE were able to quickly share accurate information with the public to encourage harm reduction discussions both in person and online over the course of the event.
"We obtained quantitative estimates of MDMA being used in Ireland which we have never had access to before, while we engaged with hidden and niche user groups whom we otherwise would not have contact with through traditional addiction services.”
The project confirms for the first time that high strength MDMA products are appearing in Ireland that are similar to elsewhere in Europe Five MDMA powders were confirmed as almost pure MDMA.
The difference in potency of MDMA products also became clear - with six identical-looking MDMA ‘Myb rand’ skull pills found to contain a range of contents from 36mg of MDMA to 235mg of MDMA.
That confirms that people cannot be sure which product may pose a higher risk.
A total of 12 substances submitted to the HSE were considered as ‘new psychoactive substances’, three of which have never been found before in Ireland.
Nicki Killeen, Emerging Drug Trends Project Manager, HSE National Social Inclusion Office, said: “From a research perspective, it is extremely interesting that we accessed such diversity in the drug samples including very novel compounds.
"These results provide us with further insight on the changing drug landscape in Ireland. Based on this, it is clear that there is a need to further expand this approach to include more frequent analysis in new settings.
“As the drug market evolves, Ireland must prepare for possible changes and associated health threats with substance analysis having a central role in this process to help us identify concerns and respond at a faster rate to reduce harm.”
Main findings
- 46 samples submitted to the HSE for analysis · 74% of samples identified on-site at event using FT-IR (n=34)
- 17% of samples identified on further analysis in NDTC laboratory (n=8)
- Drug content was identified in a total of 42 samples (91%) as part of pilot
- 4 samples remain unconfirmed
- 19 MDMA samples submitted (8 powders and 11 pills)
- 5 MDMA powders tested as almost pure MDMA
- ‘Ecstasy’ pills ranged from 36mg to 235mg of MDMA
- 12 novel substances submitted - 7 tabs, 4 powders/crystals and 1 tablet
- 3 new psychoactive substances identified not previously detected in Ireland (3-CMC, 5-MAPB, 4-HO-MiPT)
- 3 risk communications issued relating to high strength MDMA and the emergence of 3-CMC in white crystals
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