Authors Carissa Paz Dioquino, Carissa Paz Dioquino Published May 16, 2022 Abstract The drug policy in the Philippines is written as the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 or Republic Act 9165. Unlike drug policies in other countries, the law includes policies on drug testing. Aside from mandatory drug testing for specific situations, the law  …

The Loop, a non-profit NGO, introduced event-based drug checking in the UK in 2016 and community-based drug checking in 2018. The most recent findings from the Loop, published today, dig deeper into behavioural outcomes and ask what happens next, after people have used a drug checking service?

The study compares 10 key (positive, negative and neutral) outcomes of The Loop’s service that reached nearly 3,500 festival-goers in 2017, with a follow-up survey with a sub-sample three months later, to find out how the combination of test results and personalised health consultations affected their subsequent drug taking and risk management strategies.

In this episode of the Drug Science podcast, Professor David Nutt is joined by two pharmacosexuality experts to discuss chemsex, drug fuelled sex parties and sexual psychonauts. From the peak sexual experience to sober sex, our relationship with sex and drugs is complicated but intrinsically personal. Find out who chooses to mix sex and drugs,  …

By Dr. Shanna Marrinan   Since the 2nd of March 2015, it has been illegal to drive with predetermined amounts of particular drugs (including legal medications) in your blood. The limits for these legal and illegal drugs can be located in ‘The Drug Driving (Specified Limits) (England and Wales) Regulations 2014’ (hereafter the 2014 regulations’). However, a handy  …

Professor David Nutt sits down with Fiona Measham, Anna Wade & Janine Milburn for an in depth look into why drug testing is so vital at festivals and beyond. Topics discussed include; Janine’s views following her daughters accidental overdose, how drug testing works at The Loop’s facilities, tackling the idea that the practice sends ‘mixed messages’,  …

As summer approaches and with an increasing number of outdoor events in the calendar, the pop-up drug scene comes back into focus. As with previous years, MDMA (ecstasy), the most prominent drug at festivals and clubs, is likely to dominate again. Tragedy has struck down a number of young lives with MDMA related deaths increasing  …

An alarming rise in drug-related deaths at music festivals can be countered by testing illicit substances onsite, according to the first academic study of its kind [PDF download], which has triggered calls for similar services to be rolled out at all major events. Samples contained ketamine instead of cocaine, while a drug sold as MDMA  …

The recent spate of headlines about the rising use of monkey dust drug in Stoke on Trent has led to calls to it to be made a Class A drug [from Class B where it/they are currently placed]. Whilst it is understandable that parents and local community groups would like to put an end to  …

Today’s report of over 60 deaths last year in which fentanyl was implicated raises major alarm bells in the opioid treatment community. It could be the prelude to a wave of deaths from this synthetic opioid (as is now being seen in the USA), where now most street “heroin” is boosted with fentanyl. So what  …

As the United States experiences an overwhelming opioid crisis; as the world’s press is flooded with extra-judicial killings targeting drug “offenders” in the Philippines; as young Australians overdose on novel psychoactive substances and teenagers in the UK on ecstasy, there can be only one certainty: drugs are here to stay. Despite some countries reaffirming farcical  …

A version of this post was published in The Guardian It seems the London club Fabric has had its licence revoked on the grounds that its management is inadequately controlling drug use in the venue. The immediate incidents that led to this decision were the tragic deaths this year of two young men at the  …

Inside a previously unremarkable circle of grass about 10 metres in diameter, a bold new precedent for drugs policy was set in the UK. Pitched on the grass at the Secret Garden Party 2016 festival in Cambridgeshire, was a tent run by The Loop, a not for profit drug and alcohol service. For those few  …

A version of this post was published in The Guardian The past week has seen a number of drug disasters in the UK, one of which is the unexpected deaths of three men, two from Ipswich and one from Telford. They all appear to have taken a drug called PMA (para-Methoxyamphetamine). We presume that they  …