Nightclubs in the city of Preston, located in the northwest region of Lancashire, England, are experimenting with a novel idea: they are going to let party revellers know if their drugs are pure.
Yes! Just walk into a booth and submit your cocaine and MDMA to see if it is "adulterated or highly potent". And best of all, the testing is fully legal and you won't court arrest. Tested samples will, of course, be destroyed, but users will not be required to give their names.
The plan, which is set to be operational from 2017, on Friday and Saturday nights is aimed at harm reduction and is the brainchild of the charity called 'the Loop'. It is also being backed by the Lancashire police
"It's a very new service and some people might see it as quite radical, but it's focusing on harm reduction," Fiona Measham, professor of criminology at Durham University and co-director of the Loop, the charity running the scheme, was quoted saying by the Independent.
However, critics argue that the project normalises consumption of drugs and added that no drugs are completely safe regardless of purity.
"I am staggered this is being contemplated…The police are advocating a view which one would not unfairly describe as facilitating drug use…By implication, the green light has been given by the authorities to consumption. It's hard to see how this isn't an absolute breach of our current drugs laws," professor Neil McKeganey, founder of the Centre for Substance Use Research at Glasgow University, said.
According to data cited by the Independent, drug deaths are at an all-time high and are still rising. Since 1993, when authorities began keeping records, the numbers have been increasing year-on-year with a momentary drop in 2012.
In 2014, around 2,250 people died due to drug misuse, indicating a three-fold surge in the past two decades. A majority of them has been due to accidental poisoning.
