Ms Ruby Lawlor:

I will leave it to my colleagues to talk about the experience in the UK where this has been implemented and evidence from there. From what we would promote at youth fairs and from what we have seen is beneficial when it comes to drug testing and any harm reduction service is that it is done within communities and there is a peer approach to it, particularly when it comes to young people. I am not talking about those under 18. It is about young people under 30 running these services and peers are at the front of these services bringing people in and informing them that there are these drug testing services available among their own community of young people who use drugs. A peer approach is a better approach to making sure services are accessible and that people trust them because they see that people in their community are also using and promoting these services so they can trust them and not wondering, "Is this going to be something that is going to catch me - the police waiting to catch me there?"