Ana Liffey Drug Project to provide harm reduction services at Electric Picnic

Volunteers from Ana Liffey Drug Project will be leading the drug specific interventions at Electric Picnic this year, providing harm reduction services across the weekend. As part of the Welfare services provided at the festival, the team will work alongside other health care professionals such as Code Blue and the Irish Red Cross at Electric Picnic. Ana Liffey will be disseminating high quality health promotion information and materials to festival goers.
They will also provide people with one-to-one drug & alcohol information, advice and signposting to other services.

Working at set times throughout the weekend, Ana Liffey’s team will engage proactively with people about drug use, providing evidence based harm reduction interventions to help people stay as safe as possible. Ana Liffey neither promotes nor denounces substance use but seeks to respond to problems associated with it - Tony Duffin, CEO of Ana Liffey, said, “Obviously, it is not safe to drink alcohol to excess; and it is certainly true that it is safer not to take illicit or unknown drugs at all. However, we are aware that some people attending music festivals do drink excessively and take drugs; and everyone needs to work together to reduce the potential for harm. So, it is important that people can access accurate information and have a non-judgemental harm reduction service available at such events.”

Many people who intend to take illicit or unknown drugs at music festivals plan their weekend consumption in advance. This summer Gardaí have publicly warned those attending festivals that there will be “no tolerance” of drugs. However, the reality is that there are no drug free music festivals. Policing alone cannot manage drug use at music festivals. The issue requires a cohesive law enforcement and public health approach.

This is the second year that Ana Liffey has provided harm reduction services at Electric Picnic. In 2018 Ana Liffey will be providing a significantly expanded service to that provided in 2017. The service will include a presence in the Welfare Tent located in the Jimi Hendrix campsite (the Eviction Tent) and an outreach service across multiple campsites. People will be able to recognise the volunteers who will be wearing black t-shirts with Ana Liffey Drug Project on the front and #SaferFromHarm written across the back. Festival Republic, the organisers of Electric Picnic, are to be commended for their proactive, health based approach to drug issues. They have invited Ana Liffey Drug Project into the festival in an attempt to reduce the risks of serious harm from the use of illicit or unknown drugs and from the excessive consumption of alcohol.

Find out more information here: www.aldp.ie/