'Half of festival-goers' admit to taking illegal drugs, so should they be safety tested?

Back-of-house safety testing of illegal drugs is back at many festivals this summer and one of the leading charities conducting the operations, 'The Loop', lives could already have been saved by spotting trends like MDMA pills which are twice the strength of two years ago.

The Home Office abruptly halted their activities last year by ordering them to apply for new licenses. Event bosses, including Parklife's Sacha Lord, accused it of doing a "dangerous U-turn" on the issue.

Back-of-house testing works by setting up a mobile lab on the festival site and taking samples from drugs which are seized by security, left in amnesty bins or simply found discarded.

If an alarming finding is discovered, like a substance is laced with something even more dangerous or the purity level is especially high, warnings can be sent out to attendees on site via text alerts or push notifications in their festival apps.

Watch Nick Smith's report here:

The Loop have had a presence at Festivals such as Parklife and Secret Garden Party. Reading, Leeds and Glastonbury Festival organisers say they provide their own drug testing services.

Fiona Measham, Founder of The Loop and Professor of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Liverpool said:

"So we know that about half of people who go to festivals take drugs. If they take illegal drugs, they won't have any idea what's in them.

What we can do is identify the drugs themselves, the strength, any adulterants or contaminants, and get that information to people on site, that's to people who might be considering taking drugs, but also to the emergency services.What we've discovered this year is that ecstasy tablets are higher in strength, and so they're two doses in one tablet, and that's a really important information to get out to people.

We also can get that information to things like drug treatment services, other first responders and also to wider drug use in communities who could be at greater risk.

This is a particular concern at the moment because we see things like the synthetic cannabinoids or spice and also now the synthetic opioids, which can be up to 500 times stronger than heroin."

While "back-of-house" testing at festivals is a method of monitoring developments in the drugs market, some say we could go even further to reduce harm for people who will inevitably still want to experiment with substances.

Drugs checking is a service which involves a person directly handing over samples of what they intend to take to be tested without fear of being criminalised. The sample is not returned to them after testing, but advisors are able to tell them what is in the sample and offer practical safety advice.

The Loop were previously able to run drugs checking on some festival sites in agreements with organisers. However, the new Home Office guidance makes this difficult to resume.

18-year-old Ellie Rowe from Glastonbury died after taking Ketamine, which was mixed with alcohol in her system. She was found unconscious in her tent. Her mother, Wendy Teasdill, returns to the festival each year to offer drugs safety advice.

She thinks if Ellie had been offered a drugs checking service, she'd have taken it up, listened to the advice and would still be alive today.

Wendy said:

"Absolutely she would (be alive today), she completely would. There are people who say that the drug testing and checking encourages drug taking. I say they're going to take them anyway. Let's be realistic.

It's a fact of life, so I don't really see a solution apart from conversation, being able to talk about these things, I think is so important.

When we used to be able to do drug checking at festivals, often if people were told what they wanted to take was cut with something awful, they would throw it away. They would act on sensible advice.

So we mustn't compartmentalise people who take drugs, because what I didn't realise at the time (of Ellie's death), what I really know now is how normal it is for young people."

Studies by The Loop have suggested drug-checking can reduce deaths.

The Home Office says drug testing needs licensed approval and they do not sanction festival-goers having their own samples directly tested. It was under the previous Conservative government that charities were prevented from testing last year under ad-hoc agreements with festival organisers and local policing.

While Boomtown's organisers say they utilise our back of house drug testing providers to identify harmful substances circulating at the festival and keep those in attendance informed with as much factual information as possible. Along with increased security at the gates and on site to try and prevent substances from getting into the event.