Ms Niamh Eastwood:

To add to what Professor Eastwood said about people who are at risk of synthetic opioids, in the UK and I think in Ireland, we have seen metazene contaminate other markets beyond the opioids such as the benzodiazepine market. We need this to be in centres where people are accessing. I agree with Ms Lawlor and Professor Stevens. Within the benzodiazepine market, we have seen nitazenes come up in Xanax, which is used by young people, particularly within the student population, so I would be keen to see that we are connecting with universities and colleges to support young people to come forward and test their substances and to give them the harm reduction advice they need to stay as safe as possible. The evidence has shown that when people know what is in their drugs, if they are not what they thought they were buying, they are likely to discard those drugs. This is a really great harm reduction tool in terms of engaging people and helping them to make safer decisions.