Pubdate: Mon, 13 Jul 2015
Source: Metro (Halifax, CN NS)
Copyright: 2015 Metro Canada
Contact:  http://www.metronews.ca/Halifax
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4727
Author: Stephen Kimber
Page: 12

HARM REDUCTION CAN HELP KEEP FESTIVALS SAFE

Let's begin with a worst-case scenario hypothetical.

A young woman attending last weekend's Evolve Music Festival -
Antigonish's three-day "celebration of music, culture and social
awareness" - decides she wants to alter her mind with some
mind-altering substance. She asks around, discovers a guy selling what
she thinks she wants to buy. She buys. She takes. But the drug isn't
what she thought. She collapses. She's rushed to hospital. She dies.

That horrific hypothetical isn't all that hypothetical.

At Toronto's Veld Festival last year, a 20-year-old woman who was a
promising political science major and a 22-year-old man with a diploma
in marketing died after taking what they thought was a "party drug."
Thirteen others were sent to hospital.

That same summer, another woman died and 80 were hospitalized at
B.C.'s Boonstock Festival.

In 2012, a man died of an overdose at the Shambhala Music Festival in
B.C.

After that, Shambhala organizers decided to offer on-site testing to
make sure attendees at least knew what they were buying. They are now
even able to post whiteboard notices - "Green playboy bunny baggie -
sold as ketamine - actually methoxetamine" - warning people away from
the more dangerous substances.

Evolve's producer, Jonas Colter, wanted to do the same at last
weekend's Evolve 16. Although no one has died at his festival, three
people were taken to hospital last year because of drug overdoses.

But after he announced what should have been this feel-good,
proactive, harm reduction strategy, Evolve's insurance underwriter
immediately pulled the plug on its liability insurance. One presumes
its concern is either that drug testing might appear to condone
illegal activity, or that someone might sue if a test provided
inaccurate results.

But if our worst-case scenario ever actually happened, the family of
the dead girl might sue anyway - because the insurance company refused
to let the organizers provide testing that might have saved her life.

Luckily, it appears that my worst-case-scenario hypothetical is just
that.

But there will continue to be festivals. And drugs. And people will
die. Unless we acknowledge reality, and decide saving lives is more
important than pretending to wage war on drugs.
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MAP posted-by: Matt