Shambhala music festival can't test for fentanyl or W18

The Shambhala music festival anannual electronic music festival held in the first week of August in the West Kootenay won't be able to test for trace amounts of drugs like fentanyl or W18 which police have described as 'scary and terrifying'because of how fatal even a small dose can be.

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Nelson, B.C.-based society,Aids Network Outreach and Support Society (ANKORS)runs a drug testing tent atShambhala tests for MDMA and 15 other drugs.

The reagents they use can tell whether a drug is what consumers have been told it is or not, but it cannot pick up trace amounts of other drugs.

"We are generally testing for misrepresentation. If a drug issold as MDMA but doesn'thave anyMDMAin it at all, we can tell people that ... but if it is MDMA mixed with something else we cannot," saidChloeSage, the festival's harm reductioncoordinator.

Sage said the reality is scary and they are constantly trying to play catch up.

"Fentanylis probably one of the scariest and W18 is evenscarierand I don't think it is the last one we will see either," she said.

To address the growing concern over fentanyl and W18this year, outreach teams at the festival will be equipped with the drug,naloxone a medication that can reverseanopioid overdose.

Sage saysthere has been a huge rise in drug misrepresentation andadulterated drugs in the past decade.

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"There is no such thing as pure drugs anymore," she said, which is why a major part of the conversation at the drug testing tents isabout education and dosage.

Last year, there were five hospital transfers at the festival and 13the year before that.

With files from theCBC's Daybreak Southand David French.

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