Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair for facilitating this conversation about harm reduction, and I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I commend the HSE and the Department of Health for their work in informing drug users about the safe use of drugs. It is proactive, realistic and life saving.

According to a Eurobarometer poll in 2014, the use of psychoactive drugs among 15 to 24 year olds in Ireland is the highest in Europe. This also extends to music festivals, where MDMA, ecstasy, ketamine and cocaine are all common. I also commend the specific HSE guidelines on music festival attendees or festival-goers. It advises that it is always safer not to use ecstasy or MDMA but, if one does, one should test-dose a new batch and begin with a low dose of one quarter of a pill. Obviously, these illicit drugs do not go through any regulatory testing at all.There are reports that bad batches have caused havoc among Irish festivalgoers and resulted in the deaths or emergency health reactions of festival attendees. Not a summer goes by without news here or in Britain of such incidents. Conversations regarding drug testing at festivals have taken place this summer and Dr. Eamon Keenan of the HSE has called for its introduction. Having passed a policy through the Sinn Féin Ard-Fheis, I put out a statement on the matter and the Ana Liffey drug project has also spoken on it. I commend Ana Liffey, the HSE, Help Not Harm and Electric Picnic, all of which engaged in the provision of harm reduction services at music festivals this summer. We cannot ignore the inevitability that drugs will be used by a percentage of people attending festivals. Most importantly, we must recognise that no amount of literature, education or one-to-one advice will ever inform a person about what constitutes a safe dose of an illicit or unknown drug.

In May this year, two festival goers in Portsmouth died after taking pills which contained three times the typical dose of ecstasy. It is always safer not to use unknown or illicit drugs at all and they are illegal. However, we must be conscious, given their prevalence, that putting our heads in the sand or condemning those who partake has failed completely. We are doing very well in advancing the harm reduction conversation but we can do more. While I do not wish to pre-empt the work of the national drugs strategy, which is examining the issue, I ask the Minister of State whether the Department will support initiatives similar to The Loop initiative in Britain? The Loop offers a confidential drug-testing service at festivals in Britain. A festival goer can provide a sample and will be informed what constitutes it. The sample is then destroyed in the context of the criminalisation that exists in Britain. Will the Department consider funding a similar initiative in the absence of decriminalisation? The British Government has brought various stakeholders together, including police, health professionals, festival organisers and NGOs. The appetite exists in Ireland and we can achieve this in the absence of decriminalisation. I would welcome a statement from the Department on the matter.