Dangerously potent MDMA, Ketamine, and Cocaine were discovered at a music festival in Westmeath, the HSE has revealed.
Revellers at Life Festival, which wrapped up yesterday, were warned about the high-strength drugs after they were tested in an onsite laboratory.
The narcotic testing programme, which will be seen at other festivals this summer, involves punters anonymously putting a small number of drugs into surrender bins at the harm reduction tent or at the medical tent.
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The substances were then brought to an onsite portable laboratory and analysed by staff from the HSE National Drug Treatment Centre Laboratory using specialist machines.
Health bosses then used social media to flag any drugs which were high in strength.
On Saturday, they warned that MDMA which was two times “the average dose” was in circulation. High-strength Ketamine and Cocaine were also discovered.
In their social media posts, the HSE said: “It’s always safer not to use. Remember HSE advice, start very low, go slow, and avoid mixing.”
But experienced and well-known addiction counsellor Marie Byrne stressed she didn’t agree with the HSE’s testing programme and said it could make festival-goers believe that just because their particular drug of choice wasn’t flagged it would be “safe”.
Speaking to the Irish Mirror, she explained: “I know the logic behind it but it gives the impression that the drugs will be safer for whoever uses them.
“If you say you’re going to test every drug that comes in, it gives the impression that there is a safe way of using them at certain levels but the problem is we don’t know how any individual is going to react physically or mentally to any drug regardless of if they’re higher levels or not.”
The expert, who is the Director of MB Now International, added: “From working with people internationally if you see somebody who is young, especially people going to festivals for the first time, if there appears to be a safer way of using (drugs) them, you give the impression that it is safe to do in some context but I don’t know any context where it is really that safe to use any of them.
"Because yes, some get away with doing it but loads don’t.”
She said organisers of festivals must do everything in their power to ensure their events are as “clean as possible”.
Marie explained: “I think there is a huge responsibility on anybody organising an event to keep it as clean as possible.
“It’s not just about saying ‘we’ll see if the drug is very very very strong’, I think if you’re waiting for it to get to that stage where you’re going to test to see if something is very strong before you do something - you’re already too late.”
When asked what her message would be to revellers, Marie said: “On a realistic level, I think that they need to watch out for each other and not leave someone on their own.
“Especially if they do get into a situation or one of them uses … do not leave them on their own, they may overdose.
“I can say it forever but they’re better off not using anything in the first place but generally young people don’t think any of the stuff we talk about will happen. When you’re younger you don’t think like that. You think you’ll control it and you don’t think you’ll be that stupid … it’s a big price to pay for a very small amount of time being out of your head.”
In a statement, the HSE said they “will analyse data gathered at this event and we will liaise with the external stakeholders with a view to producing and publishing a report at a later date.”
Last year’s Electric Picnic festival in Stradbally in Laois was a pilot for the scheme and the first time revellers could get their drugs tested.
At the time, they found high-strength MDMA samples and a new substance 3-CMC not detected in Ireland before.
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