The HSE have revealed the results of Ireland's first 'back of house' drug testing pilot, which took place over the three days of Electric Picnic in early September.

As part of their Safer Nightlife harm reduction campaign, festival-goers were invited to anonymously deposit drug samples in HSE bins, which were subjected to rapid analysis.

Three social media alerts were issued after the 46 submitted samples were found to include high potency MDMA pills, powders and crystals and a new psychoactive substance, 3-MC, which can cause significant mental health problems.

The MDMA analysed included six identical-looking 'Mybrand' skull pills, which were found to contain between 36mg and 235mg of MDMA. The latter is significantly higher than the average 180mg detected at other European festivals where drug testing is in place. The risks are multiplied by users often taking more than one pill. Interestingly, the average strength of MDMA pills ten years ago was just 102mg, confirming the widely-held belief that potency has increased.

“While this report represents a relatively small number of samples numerically, we must recognise the importance of this pilot project and our findings," reflects Professor Eamon Keenan, HSE National Clinical Lead Addiction Services. “The pilot is a real example of cross sectoral collaboration, where all agencies agreed on the need to collaborate to identify emerging drug trends, with an aim of protecting the health of people attending the event.

“This programme," he continues, "is the first of its kind in Ireland, whereby the HSE accessed substances from people who use drugs to conduct real-time analysis for the purpose of sharing risk communications at a festival. As a result, the HSE were able to quickly share accurate information with the public to encourage harm reduction discussions both in person and online over the course of the event. We obtained quantitative estimates of MDMA being used in Ireland which we have never had access to before, while we engaged with hidden and niche user groups whom we otherwise would not have contact with through traditional addiction services.”

Echoing those sentiments, Nicki Killeen, Emerging Drug Trends Project Manager, HSE National Social Inclusion Office, says: “From a research perspective, it is extremely interesting that we accessed such diversity in the drug samples including very novel compounds. These results provide us with further insight on the changing drug landscape in Ireland. Based on this, it is clear that there is a need to further expand this approach to include more frequent analysis in new settings.

“As the drug market evolves, Ireland must prepare for possible changes and associated health threats with substance analysis having a central role in this process to help us identify concerns and respond at a faster rate to reduce harm.

Here's some more of the number-crunching:

· 46 samples submitted to the HSE for analysis

· 74% of samples identified on-site at event using FT-IR (n=34)

· 17% of samples identified on further analysis in NDTC laboratory (n=8)

· Drug content was identified in a total of 42 samples (91%) as part of pilot

· 4 samples remain unconfirmed

· 19 MDMA samples submitted (8 powders and 11 pills)

· 5 MDMA powders tested as almost pure MDMA

· ‘Ecstasy’ pills ranged from 36mg to 235mg of MDMA

· 12 novel substances submitted - 7 tabs, 4 powders/crystals and 1 tablet

· 3 new psychoactive substances identified not previously detected in Ireland (3-CMC, 5-MAPB, 4-HO-MiPT)

· 3 risk communications issued relating to high strength MDMA and the emergence of 3-CMC in white crystals

Deigned to be a big success by Electric Picnic organiser Melvin Benn, it's hoped that the HSE pilot will lead to drug testing and harm reduction services becoming a mandatory part of all Irish festival licensing applications.