Roughly 30 – 50 per cent of the drugs tested via Berlin’s new free and anonymous drug testing programme have been issued warnings.
As reported by the RBB, a total of 428 samples have been examined since drug checking began about two months ago. Any drugs that are deemed “dangerous” or contain other drugs, also known as “stretched”, are listed on the programme’s website. The site also includes warnings against potential contaminations with other drugs, high dosages or unknown substances.
According to the Senate Department for Health, the 428 samples have been tested at a rate of 47 samples per week. So far, several dozen warnings have been issued against some of the drugs that have been tested. They are currently being investigated and listed on the programme’s website.
As RBB reports, the warning rates have fluctuated between 30 and 50 per cent during the programme’s first two months of service. The drug testing service was created in June to minimise the risk of drug-taking, and to analyse drug-taking habits in Berlin. The scheme is carried out by The State Institute for Forensic and Social Medicine with three advice centres open across the city.
The service is aimed at frequent substance users, addicts and those who take drugs recreationally (at parties or festivals). The results of the drug’s testing are returned three days after being submitted and then sent to the appropriate counselling centre.
Cannabis, ecstasy, speed, cocaine and LSD can all be tested – both free of charge and anonymously – for their composition and purity. The programme has become really popular and has been in high demand. A spokesman for the Senate administration explained that demand has exceeded the existing capacities of each centre, which has resulted in “around 380 potential users” being turned away.
Recently, live music industry figures have criticised the government’s fresh U-turn on festival drug testing, with some saying “there’ll be blood” on their hands.
The Home Office retracted its support for drug testing at festivals, citing the need for licenses under the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001 in order to “lawfully undertake activities including the possession, supply or production of controlled drugs”.
Sacha Lord, Manchester’s Night Time Economy Adviser and the co-founder of Parklife festival, which opened just days after the U-turn, told Resident Advisor: “To land such a decision two days before the UK’s biggest metropolitan festival, which took 12 months of planning that the government is an integral part of – is appalling.”
Last month, Lord wrote to Home Secretary Suella Braverman protesting the government’s U-turn on drug testing.
Many larger festivals tend to use private companies for their drug checking but smaller and independent festivals usually link up with the charity The Loop, whose volunteers have been able to test at events without a licence due to agreements with local police and councils.
The Loop were recently informed that they had to apply for a licence 48 hours before they were set to begin drug testing at Parklife festival. It can take up to 16 weeks to be approved for a licence.
The letter sent to Braverman demanded that the June 8 decision be immediately reversed and the previously agreed arrangement for drug testing be restarted.Legal action has been threatened if the government fails to provide a response by July 7.
The letter states that the Home Office “is well aware that on site drug testing has been taking place at festivals across the country since 2014
Last summer the organisers of Boardmasters were forced to warn attendees of dangerously high-strength MDMA on-site, while a warning was issued last July by The Loop after pills tested at Secret Garden Party were found to contain more than double the amount of MDMA.
In 2021 the UK government was urged to back substance checks at such music events after a report by the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee (DCMS) warned of a surge in drug-related deaths.
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