Evolve festival organizer pushes for drug testing options

The "abundant" variety of drugs taken at music festivals means harm-reduction strategies should become a regular feature at them, says the producer of theEvolve Music and Awareness Festival.

"It is the elephantin the room. Nobody wants to talk about it. Nobody wants to be on record about it. Different types of agenciesRCMP, EHS, county councillors everybody's stance is veryneutral. Nobody wants to condone it, nobody wants to not condone it,"JonasColtersaid onCBC Radio'sqon Thursday morning.

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The four-dayAntigonish, N.S.,music event typicallyresults in multiple trips to the local emergency roomby concert goers suffering from drug reactions and overdoses. A 21-year-old man from Prince Edward Island died after attending this year's Evolve festival. The cause of Dylan Champion's death hasn't been determined.

"There has been a history of few people every year going to the localAntigonishhospitalwith overdoses. None have ever died, sadly, until this year.Dylan Championtragicallypassed away. We're not quite certain yet [about the cause]," Colter said.

Evolve organizers planned to have drug testing on the site this year to help sift out any "bad" chemicals that might lead to lethal reactions. However, insurers threatened to pull coverage and the plan was dropped.

'Plethora of drugs out there'

"They wouldn't give us any answers. I wanted to implement more harm reduction, keeppeople safe," Colter said.

"The kits were going to show the compound that was most prevalent.If you did have a pill or powder, and you brought it up to get tested, they would testit and it either would say MDMA or maybe ketamine or crystal meth or what have you.
The molly and the cocaine and the pills and powders that are going around, 50 per cent ofthe time, aren't what people expect to be buying."

Colter said some of the "bad agents" turning up in MDMA, or ecstasy,aremethamphetamine,ketamine, speed and rat poison.

"When I was a young festivalgoer, therewas mushrooms, there was LSD, maybe cocaine, alcohol. These days there are just aplethora of drugs out there," the 44-year-old said.

Last weekend, Colter attended thePemberton Music Festival, which had a harm-reduction area called Safe Haven.

"I was talking to the executive producer and he said the reason they cando the tests is that they have Health Canada on board.I dropped in a few times. It seemed to be going rather well."

Car accidents bigger threat

He said the growing numbers of music festivalspopping up make the issue critical to the safety of young patrons. It's important for organizers to share as much information as possible, he added.

"There's a festival happening every weekend. If you canidentifya pill that is sending people to hospital you can share this information.These drug dealers are entrepreneurs, trying to make money, watering down these pillsand powders.You shouldn't be buying drugs from strangers, or at all."

But one of the biggest dangers doesn't come in a pill or powder, Colter said.More people die in motor vehicle accidents going home from festivalsafter growing exhausted fromstaying up all weekend, he said.

"I've been going to festivals for 24 years.I was in a car accident leaving BobDylan show;the driver was a bit tired. I was in thehospital for a month. It took me a year to learn to walk again. Also, tragically agirlfriend of mine passed away in that accident," he said.

"It is definitely something I want to get out there in the public."