Digital Culture, Media and Sport select committee backs drug checking for music festivals this summer
Media Release
29th May 2021
On 29th May 2021 the DCMS select committee returned its report on the future of music festivals in the UK. Within it were important recommendations about the provision of Drug Checking services. The Loop has issued an official statement supporting the recommendations. You can read the media release below or download a PDF version here.
The House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee on the ‘future of UK music festivals’ has strongly backed the provision of drug checking at festivals to help reduce risks to young people and prevent drug-related deaths. In a move welcomed by The Loop, the UK’s only festival drug checking service provider, the DCMS select committee has called on the government to urgently make provision for drug checking at festivals this summer, and to establish a formal licensing framework in the longer term.
The Loop is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation committed to harm reduction through developing and implementing drug checking services in the UK. The Loop supports today’s recommendation from the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee in support of drug checking services operating at UK festivals this summer.
The committee recommendation states:
“We recommend that, before festivals take place this summer, the Home Secretary should make regulations under section 7 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 that allow organisations conducting drug checking to operate lawfully. Thereafter, the Government should introduce a dedicated licensing scheme for drug checking to set a clear legal framework and minimum standards that service providers must meet. Within the next six months, DCMS should convene a roundtable on such a licensing scheme bringing together the Home Office, the Department of Health and Social Care, police representatives, festival organisers and service providers.”
Professor Fiona Measham, Chair in Criminology at the University of Liverpool and Director of The Loop, gave expert evidence to the select committee,[1] which included evidence of the effectiveness of drug checking around the world, introduced to the UK by the Loop in 2016.[2]
Measham said:
“We welcome this recommendation from the select committee and hope the government will give it urgent consideration if they share the committee's concern with reducing risk for young people and the rising toll of avoidable drug-related deaths. It is clear from our work, and the DCMS select committee’s thorough consideration of the challenges facing festivals this year, that drug checking can reduce harmful drug use, particularly when combined with an early warning system to alert the public to dangerous substances in circulation.”
Drug checking combines chemical analysis with individually tailored consultations to provide people with timely and relevant information to make more informed decisions about drug use at a time when they may have already chosen to consume drugs. Drug checking services operate not only at festivals and nightclubs. They are increasingly being recognised as important services that should be accessible for all members of communities who use unregulated drugs.
Drug checking is a commonsense approach, successfully used to reduce drug-related harms all over the world in countries such as Canada, New Zealand, Spain, Portugal, The Netherlands and Austria. The New Zealand government’s Department of Health is currently developing a drug checking licensing scheme, the first of its kind in the world. The UK government has the opportunity to lead public health responses to drug-related harms by being one of the first countries in the world, along with New Zealand, to create a dedicated drug checking licensing scheme.
The Loop has provided drug checking at a number of UK festivals from 2016 onwards and has found that, when given access to rapid, accurate advice and information, people make more informed choices about their health. In addition to providing people with important health information, drug checking services are at the forefront of drug market surveillance. These are often the first services to detect dangerous drugs, resulting in public health alerts that can help avert drug-related harms, overdoses and deaths.
Evidence from the Loop’s festival drug checking service published earlier this month found that the service results in people disposing of dangerous drugs, reducing drug consumption levels and decreasing higher risk drug taking behaviour such as polydrug use.[3]
The Loop’s Director, Professor Fiona Measham added:
“This report from the DCMS select committee is impressive and comprehensive and we fully support its recommendations. This year more than ever, we want people to enjoy themselves at festivals and to come home safely. The tragedies of festival drug-related deaths each year in the UK highlight that we have to do more.”
“We know that drug checking can make a difference. The Loop is ready to test. We have teams of chemists, health professionals and researchers, and a fully operational mobile laboratory ready to deploy. However, we want service users as well as staff, to have legal clarity and protection from prosecution when using our service. We look forward to the UK Government implementing these recommendations and are keen to work together to prevent drug-related deaths.”
Note:
Clarification of legal grey areas was recommended by the select committee so that service users, staff and couriers are all protected from prosecution if engaging with festival drug checking services.
MEDIA INFORMATION
About Fiona Measham
Professor Fiona Measham is Chair in Criminology in the Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology at the University of Liverpool and founding Director of The Loop.
Interviews
For more information or interview requests, please contact Professor Fiona Measham at [email protected]
Useful web links
[1] Committees - UK Parliament
[2] Measham, F. (2019), Drug safety testing, disposals and dealing in an English field: Exploring the operational and behavioural outcomes of the UK’s first onsite ‘drug checking’ service, International Journal of Drug Policy, May, 67, 102-107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2018.11.001
[3] Measham, F. and Turnbull, G. (2021), Intentions, Actions and Outcomes: A follow up survey on harm reduction practices after using an English festival drug checking service, International Journal of Drug Policy, 103270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2021.103270