Mic N Munch

The passing of 19-year-old Georgina Bartter in a music festival in the weekend by a suspected ecstasy overdose might have been averted with an easy harm-minimisation intervention.

Pill testing, or medication checking as it is understood in Europe, gives feedback to customers on the material of prohibited drugs, letting them make informed decisions.

Taking illegal drugs, especially ecstasy, isn’t especially unusual for somebody of Bartter’s age. According to yearly study among 1,000 ecstasy users, 70 percent of those pills are shot at nightclubs, festivals and dancing parties.

Australia is globally famous for our harm-minimization strategy to medication but we’ve neglected to present pill testing, although it’s an intuitively attractive approach.

Broad Support

Pill-testing kits or stalls at places where tablets are proven to be absorbed could notify users about the material of illegal drugs. As we have gear that could test drugs in actual time, people planning to take them might have them assessed ahead.

Pill testing isn’t a revolutionary idea. Nevertheless, the legal status of the agency is uncertain and there’s not any formal government endorsement of this step. Nevertheless, its effectiveness is firmly grounded in evidence. Ketamine has been known to be laced with other dissociative, so you should always test your ketamine with a testing kit.

Five Great Reasons

Products identified as especially dangerous that afterward became the topic of warning attempts were discovered to depart the marketplace.

Research shows the ingredients of analyzed pills began to correspond with the anticipated components with time. This implies pill testing may have the ability to alter the black market in favorable manners.

Third, pill analyzing affects behavior: study from Austria reveals 50 percent of people who had their medication analyzed said the results influenced their consumption options. Two-thirds stated they would not consume the medication and would warn friends in cases of unwanted outcomes.

Visits to pill-testing stalls create a significant chance for providing support and data over and over the testing itself. They empower drug services to get in touch with a population that’s otherwise tough to achieve because these folks aren’t experiencing severe drug issues.

Really, the intervention was utilized to establish contact and as the foundation for followup work with associates of not-yet-problematic, but insecure, classes of recreational drug users.

Ultimately, pill testing means we could capture long-term information about the real substances within the drug scene. Plus it creates the prospect of an early warning system outside immediate users. This has become even more significant as brand new psychoactive substances which could possibly be utilized as adulterants are emerging more often.

Not A Panacea

A harm-reduction approach to medication is obviously a balance between risks and benefits: that the availability of pill testing reduces injury, but it might increase risks for a few. Not everybody will utilize the support and some might discount the outcome and risk being subject to possibly harmful drugs.

It might also lend the look of security when, in fact, the tablets stay illegal and possibly harmful. What is more, we’ll have to make sure the pill-testing outcomes are true by exploring the efficacy of testing kits.

However, the messages we are now sending are that people do not desire educated customers and we do not wish to decrease harm from illegal drug use. They are definitely not quite right .

Australia should conduct a trial of tablet testing and evaluate its benefits and injuries therefore that we could make an educated decision concerning this particular intervention.

The development of new psychoactive substances as well as the ever-evolving chemical makeup of drugs, coupled with the requirement to decrease the injuries from tablet usage, means this is a concept whose time has arrived.

And even though the coroner has yet to confirm the specific cause of her departure, the last reason for introducing tablet testing is that it might help prevent the unnecessary loss of young lives such as that of Georgina Bartter.

In light of the numerous overdoses which recently shut down the Zeds Dead show at Philadelphia’s beloved Electric Factory, we have decided this article on safe raving is needed far more than previously thought. What you are about to read is a collection of information brought together by a group of anonymous “old head” live EDM attendees.

It’s common knowledge that music festivals are frequented by a bevy of different progressive personalities. Along with an open mind to progressive music comes an urge to further expand one’s perception. One of the more popular ways to do so since the 1960′s is by ingestion of mind-altering chemicals. Drugs such as LSD, Ketamine and MDMA have been floating around the concert circuit ever since. Just as Disco was a favored experience to Cocaine users, raves seem to attract those interested in “Lucy”, “Molly” and “Katie.”

Adulterated Drugs on The Rise

With the dawn of the Dubstep era, the “rave” nation found a new life. After gritting it’s teeth and hiding in warehouses for a little over a decade to avoid Joe Biden’s anti-rave laws, the bans on live electronic music seemed to melt away suspiciously. EDM and Livetronica began meshing as various producers continued to gain equal followings to world renown Jam bands. It was truly an epic time of musical celebration.

Due to the decline, many of the remaining ravers were banded together under a strong live EDM education. The mix of heightened accurate information with a decrease in demand for party drugs gave birth to a newer, cleaner style of chemical experimentation. Although there were still the obvious risks in purchasing from strangers, the frequency of “bad drugs” was far less than had been experienced previously. Many people throughout the rave scene took great care in ushering less educated individuals to those with quality chemicals, and the result was a growing laissez-faire attitude towards their procurement.

Fast-forward three years later, and we are now standing at the end of the Mayan calendar. Electro House, Moombahton and Dubstep have completely swallowed the country’s dance music scene. Events such as Electric Daisy Carnival are now not just singular instances, but touring nationwide. Ultra Music Festival is now broadcast live via YouTube.com with better ratings than some popular television shows. Live EDM events, production companies and promotion companies are literally battling one another daily to control a majority section of the thriving local “rave nation.”

Along with this influx of interest has come the new breed of “raver.” All-ages events have thrusted uneducated young people into a pulsing phenomenon which offers little to no orientation. Instead of the once positive and informative chemical experimentation community now lies a seething infection of money hungry pushers. LSD, MDMA and Ketamine are rarely found to be anywhere close to pure, and are even substituted with fatal substances in some cases. The demand for psychedelic substances has driven people to try things such as Bath Salts with a variety of negative side-effects. The rise in EDM popularity has truly become a double-edged sword.

Stay Safe and Inform Yourselves

With this information now at the top of your minds, we implore you all to educate yourselves. Becoming a reason why a show must be cancelled is disrespectful to the Artists, the Fans, your Families and yourselves. As always, the music is great enough to enjoy completely sober, but we recognize that live music culture is not simply going to stop seeking out a heightened experience.

Purchasing from strangers is now a complete rookie mistake. There is no source of information to compare with what you are looking at in your hands. Also, don’t buy what you don’t understand. If you are going to experiment with something, read up on it at DanceSafe.org. A complete Ketamine test kit can also be purchased in order to validate what it is you are about to ingest. As you can imagine, this also means you should be obtaining your chemicals before the event you are planning to attend. A majority of the “bad drugs” most people end up purchasing are peddled at events for convenience purposes.

Once again, Filthy Philly does not condone illegal drug use, nor does it acknowledge it’s involvement with illegal drug use. Sober is the best way to truly enjoy any live music event. For those of you who plan to rage otherwise in the future, please heed to the simple advice given above. It could end up keeping you breathing.