Great you can get your drugs tested to know they’re safe and walk out of the tent to an undercover guard to take them right back off you…
I thought the title was saying they would randomly drug test the punters 😂
Absolutely great news. This has been available in other European countries for years. Only thing is in those other countries they set up a radius around the testing facilities that police don’t go into as if police just arrest people who use the facility it defeats the purpose of it and no one will use it. Are the HSE or whoever’s in charge of this gonna implement this with the guards? The drugs minister frank feighan and all of FF/FG are very backwards on these issues. It wouldn’t surprise me if they set it up in a way that it fails. Then they can say “we tried that and it didn’t work”.
I wonder how they communicate the results. There’s no way any of the little bags of coke or pills they’re testing are “safe” by normal medical standards
I’ve seen this work in Amsterdam and Berlin, Ireland needs to get more European in its attitude to people enjoying themselves.
Would it not be better to fully legalize all drugs, and make them available via dispensaries where they are tested and certified…
Who is willingly going to surrender the drugs that they have paid for?
> “It will allow the identification of anonymous substances which are surrendered either in a designated HSE surrender bin or discarded and brought to the HSE testers by gardaí.”
So, you can’t actually test the drugs for your own use? I’m guessing people will just surrender a portion of the drug, see if it’s okay, and if so then go back to their main stash?
It’s a suspiciously misleading headline, it makes it sound like it’s for the protection of festival goers when it’s at best a data collection operation. You can’t hand in your drugs to check if they’re safe and have them returned, you can only dump them there.
Will there be a prise for the person who gets all the drugs right?
About time, they were doing this at festivals in Holland in 1994
I was at a concert last night with my teenage kids and as we got out of the car we could clearly see some young people gathered around the boot of a car and sharing tablets and water. There was a strong smell of hash.
Now I’m no prude but if you can’t go to a concert without getting high then there’s something wrong with you.
This was an underground car park by the way
ITS A TRAP!
So let me get this straight, if I grow my own weed I can now bring it along to the Picnic, get it tested for potency and quality and when it passes I get a HSE quality stamp of approval on it, This sounds like a great scheme to me, whats not to like about HSE quality approved weed.
>He said it will allow the identification of anonymous substances which are surrendered either in a designated HSE surrender bin or discarded and **brought to the HSE testers by gardaí**.
>
>Substances can be analysed in real time to identify if there is a specific harm associated with a substance or one with a high potency.
>
>”We can then get that message out via social media, via festival promoters to everyone at the event and warn them of the harm of these substances.”
Unfortunately not the same as you see in other European test centers. You can’t just get your drug tested and know it’s safe. You have to drop it in a bin or bring it to the HSE “by gardai”, and they will post results on social media.
So you might hear something like “pills with this color and shape have this substance, don’t take” on social media or through announcements, but often there are faked pills with same color and shape, and it won’t do anything for powders as how can you know it was your powder that was tested.
You might say a step in the right direction, but it’s really far off what we really need. And I am suspicious of the “brought by gardai” bit, seems like this will be for people caught by gardai with drugs and not some “here I have some drugs and want to be safe” type of thing.
Great idea!
This is great news. I watched a fella die on the campsite from and overdose at EP a few years ago. Everyone was running to stewards, etc but they couldn’t get a medical team to him quick enough, it was absolutely horrible. If this stops that happening to any more innocent young men then thats great news.
Why are Anonymous testing drugs at EP?
Are they Pharma drug or recreational drugs?
Do you have to supply your own V mask or is that covered in the Drug trial?
What happens if you get a Placebo?
Are Placebo playing this EP?
easy pickings for the undercovers standing outside.
Title is very misleading
This is long overdue and announcements at festivals for drugs with bad things in them to keep people safe.
We’re about twenty years later than the Netherlands on this…
To be fair, with the state of the line up you’d want to be on drugs.
Yeah and what’s bet officer mehall won’t be standing there watching.
Wouldn’t surprise me one bit if the undercovers were staking out the dropbox for leads.
I’ve never seen the likes of it at an Irish festival. I’ve had friends caught dropping acid by a female officer in booty short and corn rows. Thankfully probation act for them, but if you had previous offences for the likes of having a 25 spot, you wouldn’t be so lucky.
any step towards harm reduction is better than no step but this is a bit useless? they test them anonymously and only post warnings on social media if necessary, which is good for people to be made aware of certain dangerous samples being about – but why would anyone give up drugs that they paid for to be tested only to not be given them back and not be told whether it’s safe or not??
Reading the article this is fucking useless. it’s a dropbox system instead of a walk in type of thing. And you can bet the amount of garda around the dropbox will be unreal.
Sure the Garda may as well just supply the drugs and we’ve save all this testing costs
Stupid, why encourage more drug use.
The risk of unsafe drugs should be seen as a great deterrent to eradicate drugs from society.
So they’re setting up a Drugs Bin for anybody that wants to put their drugs in a bin? So progressive lol
35 comments
High time, I think. Should be at every festival in the country. Harm reduction is vital.
And an undercover relieve’s you of your items after your test.
About time the HSE and HIQA grew up. A few years ago they were threatening student unions for handing out safe use leaflets.
Very welcome announcement.
Drug checking facilities in the UK showed a 95% reduction in hospitalisations after their implementation
(https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/dec/08/testing-drugs-festivals-lifesaver-study)
Great you can get your drugs tested to know they’re safe and walk out of the tent to an undercover guard to take them right back off you…
I thought the title was saying they would randomly drug test the punters 😂
Absolutely great news. This has been available in other European countries for years. Only thing is in those other countries they set up a radius around the testing facilities that police don’t go into as if police just arrest people who use the facility it defeats the purpose of it and no one will use it. Are the HSE or whoever’s in charge of this gonna implement this with the guards? The drugs minister frank feighan and all of FF/FG are very backwards on these issues. It wouldn’t surprise me if they set it up in a way that it fails. Then they can say “we tried that and it didn’t work”.
I wonder how they communicate the results. There’s no way any of the little bags of coke or pills they’re testing are “safe” by normal medical standards
I’ve seen this work in Amsterdam and Berlin, Ireland needs to get more European in its attitude to people enjoying themselves.
Would it not be better to fully legalize all drugs, and make them available via dispensaries where they are tested and certified…
Who is willingly going to surrender the drugs that they have paid for?
> “It will allow the identification of anonymous substances which are surrendered either in a designated HSE surrender bin or discarded and brought to the HSE testers by gardaí.”
So, you can’t actually test the drugs for your own use? I’m guessing people will just surrender a portion of the drug, see if it’s okay, and if so then go back to their main stash?
It’s a suspiciously misleading headline, it makes it sound like it’s for the protection of festival goers when it’s at best a data collection operation. You can’t hand in your drugs to check if they’re safe and have them returned, you can only dump them there.
Will there be a prise for the person who gets all the drugs right?
About time, they were doing this at festivals in Holland in 1994
I was at a concert last night with my teenage kids and as we got out of the car we could clearly see some young people gathered around the boot of a car and sharing tablets and water. There was a strong smell of hash.
Now I’m no prude but if you can’t go to a concert without getting high then there’s something wrong with you.
This was an underground car park by the way
ITS A TRAP!
So let me get this straight, if I grow my own weed I can now bring it along to the Picnic, get it tested for potency and quality and when it passes I get a HSE quality stamp of approval on it, This sounds like a great scheme to me, whats not to like about HSE quality approved weed.
>He said it will allow the identification of anonymous substances which are surrendered either in a designated HSE surrender bin or discarded and **brought to the HSE testers by gardaí**.
>
>Substances can be analysed in real time to identify if there is a specific harm associated with a substance or one with a high potency.
>
>”We can then get that message out via social media, via festival promoters to everyone at the event and warn them of the harm of these substances.”
Unfortunately not the same as you see in other European test centers. You can’t just get your drug tested and know it’s safe. You have to drop it in a bin or bring it to the HSE “by gardai”, and they will post results on social media.
So you might hear something like “pills with this color and shape have this substance, don’t take” on social media or through announcements, but often there are faked pills with same color and shape, and it won’t do anything for powders as how can you know it was your powder that was tested.
You might say a step in the right direction, but it’s really far off what we really need. And I am suspicious of the “brought by gardai” bit, seems like this will be for people caught by gardai with drugs and not some “here I have some drugs and want to be safe” type of thing.
Great idea!
This is great news. I watched a fella die on the campsite from and overdose at EP a few years ago. Everyone was running to stewards, etc but they couldn’t get a medical team to him quick enough, it was absolutely horrible. If this stops that happening to any more innocent young men then thats great news.
Why are Anonymous testing drugs at EP?
Are they Pharma drug or recreational drugs?
Do you have to supply your own V mask or is that covered in the Drug trial?
What happens if you get a Placebo?
Are Placebo playing this EP?
easy pickings for the undercovers standing outside.
Title is very misleading
This is long overdue and announcements at festivals for drugs with bad things in them to keep people safe.
We’re about twenty years later than the Netherlands on this…
To be fair, with the state of the line up you’d want to be on drugs.
Yeah and what’s bet officer mehall won’t be standing there watching.
Wouldn’t surprise me one bit if the undercovers were staking out the dropbox for leads.
I’ve never seen the likes of it at an Irish festival. I’ve had friends caught dropping acid by a female officer in booty short and corn rows. Thankfully probation act for them, but if you had previous offences for the likes of having a 25 spot, you wouldn’t be so lucky.
any step towards harm reduction is better than no step but this is a bit useless? they test them anonymously and only post warnings on social media if necessary, which is good for people to be made aware of certain dangerous samples being about – but why would anyone give up drugs that they paid for to be tested only to not be given them back and not be told whether it’s safe or not??
Reading the article this is fucking useless. it’s a dropbox system instead of a walk in type of thing. And you can bet the amount of garda around the dropbox will be unreal.
Sure the Garda may as well just supply the drugs and we’ve save all this testing costs
Stupid, why encourage more drug use.
The risk of unsafe drugs should be seen as a great deterrent to eradicate drugs from society.
So they’re setting up a Drugs Bin for anybody that wants to put their drugs in a bin? So progressive lol
Drugs are Bad M’Kay. Don’t do drugs