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I’m fully aware of the risks, yet when it comes down to it, among me and all of my friends there’s a prevailing sense of ‘it couldn’t happen to me could it?’. Faced with a decision between what seems like an infinitely small risk and not taking anything, the choice seems obvious. Myself and many others share the belief that for the most part, as long as you are smart about it you’ll be fine and our experiences so far have done nothing to dispel this.

The bad drug experiences I’ve witnessed have come as a result of either stupidity or bravado, with people taking far more than what is, for want of a better word, safe. People take another cap because they think their first one isn’t going to hit, people take more than they should because they think it’s impressive.

The very measures that are meant to deter drug taking have been the trigger for some of the worst experiences that have ever happened to my friends. The sight of police at the entrance to a festival has led panicked swallowing of everything a friend had on them, putting to waste well thought out plans for the safe or staggered consumption of drugs.

In the absence of a better system, most of us just turn to past experiences and word of mouth as a safety net, which is exactly why we need pill-testing. Pill-testing isn’t going to save the man chewing his face off taking eight caps on a 35 degree day. But it will save the guy just having one because all of his friends are, assured by the knowledge it’s come from a reliable dealer but unaware of the true nature of the substance they are consuming. Drugs and festivals will continue to mix, but until we realise that there’s always less harm in knowing, the combination will be volatile.