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they learn from their friends , or if they ’ re lucky enough they meet people like us and we give them information on how to not harm yourself .’ Maintaining a synergy between all the actors involved also presented a challenge , said Elisa Fornero of the Neutravel Project in Italy . ‘ Organisers , club owners , DJs are all stakeholders for us , but so are security teams , first aid staff and , in a big festival , the police . You have to consider all of them and that can be difficult , especially in big events .’
Some club owners in Hungary could be an obstacle to effective harm reduction , added Borkowski . ‘ Sometimes they ’ ll prevent people from drinking water from the tap because they want them to buy it in the bar .’ What was encouraging , however , was how some people his organisation had helped through a difficult experience would later sign up with DÁT2 Psy Help to support others , and the organisation was now making a real difference across the country . ‘ We come from the psychedelic Goa trance party scene but more and more we ’ re asked to attend parties from different organisers , like techno or even general music festivals . These are often young organisers – 20 , 25-year-olds – so they ’ re the next generation , and it shows that they all understand the need for harm reduction .’
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‘ They ’ re in the field and they monitor and study the evolution of cultures , because a big part of planning a harm reduction intervention is considering the subculture you ’ re going to meet . Mixing cocaine and ketamine is very popular in Italy at the moment , for example .’
Portugal , meanwhile , was seeing ‘ an increase in the consumption of cathinones , especially since the pandemic ’, said Cunha . ‘ And in the drugchecking service we ’ re seeing constant change in which cathinones are circulating . We have a lot of 3-CMC , and more recently 2-MMC . When you have a lot of new substances appearing – some of them very recently synthesised – it brings a lot of challenges , because it ’ s very hard to know doses and duration of effects to build a harm reduction approach or know what to tell people . You can only get information from people taking it .’
NEW DRUGS , NEW CHALLENGES This was a growing problem across the continent , said Borkowski . ‘ Unlike with established and known-toscience drugs like MDMA or LSD , people are taking substances that no one ’ s ever heard of that have been synthesised in some shady lab in Asia . So we have no idea why people are feeling bad or tripping for 24 hours or more – it ’ s really difficult to work in these situations , because we don ’ t have any data .’
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‘ Festivals can be challenging events that really take their toll , both physically and mentally .’
MAR CUNHA
Polydrug use was on the rise in Estonia , said Oja , with increasing rates of drug-related harms . The Baltic states were also seeing a surge in use of nitazenes , he said , as highlighted in the EMCDDA ’ s latest European drug report ( see news , page 4 ), and with a consequent rise in drug-related deaths . It was a ‘ perfect storm ’, he warned – at the same time that young people were using more prescription medicines like benzodiazepines recreationally , more and more counterfeit pills were coming onto the market – many containing nitazenes .
UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY All of this meant that festivals were a unique opportunity for real-time monitoring and understanding of new substances and behaviours , said Goosdeel . ‘ They ’ re unique settings for harm reduction interventions , the problem being that not everyone is convinced by the need for harm reduction .’ In some countries these services
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were accepted or mainstreamed , while in others this wasn ’ t the case , and there were inevitably different approaches and policies at national and local levels . ‘ There are constraints everywhere , so we just need to respect that and cope with it .’
Even though drug checking still wasn ’ t mainstream it was important to avoid simply rejecting opportunities , he stressed . One key lesson from harm reduction was that it was self-defeating to not build a partnership because the authorities you were dealing with wouldn ’ t accept one particular element – such as drug testing – he stated . ‘ If every time you only bring the one thing the other party doesn ’ t want – and won ’ t listen to – then all you get is that nothing happens .’
At many events it was only possible to check drugs that had been seized , for example , but ‘ you still have a lab and the possibility to know if something new and problematic is appearing , so you can disseminate information and tell people to be aware and be careful . There are always intermediary options . It ’ s about establishing a dialogue with the authorities and law enforcement , so they can see the added value .’
And with growing numbers of new synthetic drugs on the market , it was vital to convey the message that we need to be prepared , he said . ‘ Not just for people who use drugs , but for the national authorities as well .’ DDN
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PEER POWER Working with peers was essential , stressed Cunha – both for their input and for vital information on what drugs were circulating and how people were taking them . ‘ Sometimes it ’ s hard to keep track of everything ’ – this was especially the case now that trends in drug use were constantly shifting .
‘ Harm reduction workers are like researchers or anthropologists ,’ said Fornero .
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