B.C. music festival funding own drug testing after province rejects request for help

A push to get B.C. government funding to help with drug testing at a music festival has been rejected, resulting in festival organizers picking up a costly tab.

Stacey Forrester is the Harm Reduction Coordinator with Bass Coast Festival, which kicks off next month in the Thompson-Nicola region. She sent a letter to the province in March asking for help, but was told it couldn’t provide funding or resources to help festival organizers alleviate the costs of harm reduction services.

“And then [the province] reminded us to have good hand-washing and lots of naloxone,” Forrester says.

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, the live event industry has been severely impacted financially. Harm reduction will be a costly burden for festivals to carry alone, Forrester says, especially since the update from the provinces comes fairly late in the planning process. She says this leaves event organizers with an unrealistic timeline to figure out how to pay for harm reduction.

“It’s not also just about preventing overdose. Obviously, that’s what gets a lot of attention. But by people testing their drugs, they can better prepare for the experience. So they can avoid spending a night in the sanctuary zone or [be] in emotional or psychiatric distress because they’re informed about what they’re consuming,” Forrester explains.

Bass Coast plans to have drug testing available for 12 hours each day throughout the festival (Thursday to Sunday) but Forrester says it will costs thousands of dollars, which is likely out of reach for smaller festivals and events.

“We’ll have three machines, and then the technicians and all the other support staff needed to interpret and support. A key essential element of these services is that it connects everyone who comes through the space with an educator. So even if the result is something that they wanted, we still have a critical window of time to connect with them about all of the safety services on site,” she adds.

Photo of a FTIR spectrometer that analyzes a drug or substance. (CityNews photo)

Forrester says in 2019, the B.C. Centre for Substance Use was researching testing at events and provided the service free to some festivals, but there were no plans to keep it running.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry issued a public letter on Monday about best practices at festivals, like carrying naloxone.

“In addition to medical and security services provided on festival grounds, it is important to support everyone to prevent COVID-19 and to support the use of readily available harm reduction services, including the carry and use of naloxone kits and the provision and support of drug checking services where illegal substance use is a known risk,” the letter says.

“Drug checking at festivals helps individuals make informed decisions about using substances and enables alerts to festival attendees and event medical staff when toxic and/or contaminated drugs have been identified at the event. This free service is offered through community partners and organizations.”

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While free services are available, Forrester points out they’re not widespread enough across the province and most people don’t how to mail in samples. She calls the province’s communication “muddy” as services depend on where you live, and many festivals are held in remote areas.

CityNews asked the Ministry of Health and Addictions how many drug testing machines it has and why it won’t help with funding, but has not received a response.

The Ministry has pointed to its own drug checking sites, saying it helps people know exactly what they’re taking.

A 2019 B.C. coroner’s report recommended drug testing at festivals after a 16-year-old girl died at a Kelowna event. She’d taken something she thought was ecstasy.

Private sector and volunteers filling the gap

Get Your Drugs Tested on East Hastings Street is still a few weeks away from getting a mobile unit ready to stop at festivals and cities across Canada.

Dana Larsen is the the program founder, and says the province is really dropping the ball.

“They do have some available which is better than nothing. But certainly music festivals are saying they’re not getting any help for testing their substances,” he says. “There’s a lot of parts of the province that have no drug analysis services available at all. And it’s kind of a sad state of affairs that we are by far the busiest drug analysis service in the province and get zero funding from the government and are entirely paying for everything ourselves.”

Larsen says he would love to see more money put into these kinds of projects.

“Not only is this a crucial health care measure, not only is it going to be saving lives to offer this kind of service, but also it’s a very good investment,” he says. “There’s a lot of costs involved with overdoses and deaths and sending paramedics and dealing with this.”

However, he says he’s disappointed the province is not providing services at festivals, as the private sector and volunteer groups are left to fill the gap.

“We’re going to be doing our best to get our services out there and analyzing and checking as many drugs as possible,” Larsen says. “But there’s only so much we can do without the resources of the provincial government behind us.”

Forrester says she believes most, if not all festival organizers have the intention to be respectful of the communities in which they are hosting events. Part of being respectful means they don’t want to strain the health care systems in the area.

“So the more prevention we can put in on-site, and preventing from people getting into medical distress, the better off (we’ll be),” she says. “It helps strengthen relationships to not just be sending ambulance after ambulance.”