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Revellers should be able to have their drugs tested without fear of arrest before attending festivals or going clubbing, says a Bristol MP.

In May, drug-testing charity The Loop was given permission by Avon and Somerset Police and Bristol City Council to set-up at Eastville Park during the Love Saves the Day festival.

Festival-goers were encouraged over the course of the weekend to hand in samples of any drugs in their possession so they could be tested by chemists in their mobile laboratory.

Advice was then given to punters about the drug’s content, potency and effects, after which the drug sample was destroyed.

Thangam Debbonaire, MP for Bristol West, said she thought The Loop’s presence played a major part in ensuring there were no drug-related deaths or hospital admissions during the festival, which took place over the weekend of May 26-28.

(Image: James Beck)

After its successful use in Bristol, Ms Debbonaire is now calling for drug testing to be made compulsory at festivals and nightclubs across the country.

According to The Loop, one in three clubbers takes drugs while 11 young people have died after taking drugs at music festivals across the UK over the past two years.

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Ms Debbonaire, a Labour Party whip, said she wanted to provide a “safer” environment for young people while also “disrupting drug dealers’ business models” by exposing dangerous supplies.

“Drug safety testing takes dangerous substances out of circulation, reduces risk, prevents harm and makes festivals and clubs safer and nicer places to be,” she said.

“All drugs, legal or otherwise, have dangers, but people still use them. When they know what is in a substance they are intending to take, this gives them information.

“Giving everyone clear information about the substances they intend to consume does not make it easier to take illicit substances.

“Nor does it eliminate all risk – alcohol licensing and labelling still don’t prevent all alcohol-related harms.

“But providing information about illegal drugs can be done within our current laws, the Bristol experiences has shown that.”

During the debate on drug testing on Friday, July 6, the city MP said that “in an ideal world” she would like to see licences for festival and nightclubs “be made conditional on the availability of drug safety testing”.

The Loop said 10 per cent of all substances it tested at Love Saves the Day were not what the user thought it was.

The charity was able to put out public warnings and brief the police after discovering a particularly high potency in the batches of drugs its experts tested.

(Image: Fiona Measham)

At the festival The Loop’s chemists found pills containing 300mg of MDMA, the active mind-altering ingredient in ecstasy pills.

With 300mg being at least three times the amount of MDMA usually found in an ecstasy pill, the experts were able to warn festival goers to avoid any blue triangular pills with a skull ‘punisher’ logo on them.

Other tests revealed the "drug" samples were instead concrete, boric acid or “other very unpleasant substances”, said Ms Debbonaire – who has previously advocated for regulating some Class A drugs.

Home Office minister Nick Hurd said the Government would not stand in the way of individual police forces that wanted to take a “multi-agency” approach to tackling drug deaths.

He said the 11 deaths at British festivals had been “11 too many”.

The police minister confirmed he would be meeting with national police chiefs to discuss whether further guidance was required to help chief constables decide whether to approve drug testing at festivals.

The London Tory MP said: “I can confirm that the position of the Home Office is that these are local operating decisions which the Home Office is not standing in the way of.

“The fact that Avon and Somerset Police have said they want to cooperate with this sends a strong signal on this.

“I have spoken to Chief Constable Andy Marsh and he is very clear that this is the right thing to do, and his legal position in doing so.”

Mr Hurd said he did “not want to be doing anything that can be seen to be endorsing the possession of illegal drugs”.