A controversial scheme is allowing people to test their drugs at festivals this summer to check they do not have lethal chemicals.

Cocaine and ecstasy users have been promised they will not be arrested if they take their drugs to the on-site festival lab run by the charity The Loop.

The service is being offered at the Kendal Calling festival in Cumbria this weekend and organisers claim to have found crushed up malaria medication, insecticide and concrete in the pills tested.

Professor Fiona Measham, director of The Loop, said: ‘We accept that some people will get drugs on site and some people will be planning to take them so what we’re doing is trying to address any potential health problems.

‘This is a focus on public health rather than on criminal justice.’

Prof Measham revealed about one in five users ask the charity to dispose of substances after they have been tested,

However, the scheme has come under fire for promoting drug use.

One festival goer was delighted when he ecstasy was tested and was pure. (Picture:Shutterstock)

David Raynes, of the National Drug Prevention Alliance, said: ‘This normalises drug taking. Some people go to festivals for the first time and take drugs for the first time.

‘The drugs they take will not be drugs that have been tested because during the testing process the drugs get destroyed so there will be other drugs available to them.

‘Testing doesn’t make the drugs that people might take at a festival safe.’

One reveler, who did not want to be named, was relieved the ecstasy he brought to be tested was pure.

He said: ‘I read some bad reports about the pills as well as some good ones, so I decided it would be best for me that I have the reassurance in my mind to know that I’ve come here, have it tested and know for sure. It just gives me peace of mind to know that what I’m taking is safe instead of just taking anything.’