Professor Fiona Measham (The Loop UK and University of Liverpool) and data scientist Henry Simmons (Envelop Risk Analytics and Durham University) have released an article on drug checking at festivals in the UK in 2018.
They wanted to get a snapshot of which demographics were using drug checking, what kind of harm reduction services they’d used before, and what people were going to do with their substance if it turned out to be something unexpected.
What did they find?
- 3% of UK festivalgoers had drug checking and harm reduction conversations with the drug checking representatives
- When their samples were consistent with what the buyer thought they were, over 50% said they would reduce the dose they were going to take
- When their samples were inconsistent with what the buyer thought they were, nearly 75% of people disposed of their sample.
Download the article from Emerald Insights. It’s behind a paywall, but you can get access through a university/research institution.
How does this compare with Aotearoa’s numbers?
62% of people discarded or destroyed their substance when it turned out to be something other than what they thought it was in the 2018-2019 season.
Read the rest of our 2018-2019 season testing report
Gee, it’s almost like if you give people accurate, honest information instead of treating them like children they make safer decisions about the way they take drugs…
