This summer, the HSE will be providing ‘back of house’ drug checking at four festivals to help monitor drug trends in circulation.
Professor Eamon Keenan, HSE Clinical Lead, Addiction Services, said: “We have ongoing concerns about the health impacts associated with current use patterns, in particular mental health reactions we have observed. “Last summer we provided 76 hours of outreach at three events to support festival attendees and following the analysis of 220 surrendered drugs, we identified a number of trends of concern and issued eight risk communications about high-strength MDMA, cocaine and ketamine, which is an indication of current trends.