Pubdate: Sat, 09 Jul 2016 Source: Ottawa Sun (CN ON) Copyright: 2016 Canoe Limited Partnership Contact: http://www.ottawasun.com/letter-to-editor Website: http://www.ottawasun.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/329 Author: Megan Gillis Page: 11 'HOW CAN WE MAKE FUN SAFE?' Groups work to reduce drug overdoses, sex assaults during summer festivals With the summer festival season in full blast, there's a dark side to the fun in the sun. One local service agency is helping festival-goers who use drugs avoid the deadly mistakes that have killed people in Ottawa and across Canada by offering low-tech checking kits. Another is training Ottawa festival volunteers - more than 4,500 of them last year alone at events like Escapade, RBC Bluesfest and CityFolk - to intervene when they see sexual violence, which spikes at mass gatherings. "One of our big messages is how can we make fun safe?" said Stefanie Lomatski of the Sexual Assault Network, which helped launch Project SoundCheck, an initiative that helps teach volunteers to recognize and stop sexual violence at festivals. "To have an enjoyable time, we want to build people's safety and awareness and a community where people are willing to step in." The Ottawa Hospital treated eight women for sexual assault and Ottawa police were investigating as many as 10 sexual assaults on a single weekend last month. The hospital reported that six of those women were under 20, with assaults reported to have happened at festival sites and parties. It's the same "devastating" trend explored in Ottawa Hospital research in 2014, which found that sexual assaults peak during celebrations such as New Year's Eve and Canada Day, with statistical links to youth, drugs and alcohol and assailants who were strangers. "It's a community responsibility to address sexual violence," Lomatski said. "We can change what that looks like." Project SoundCheck trains volunteers to look for signs of trouble while they're taking tickets or selling merchandise, and step in and get help. Volunteers might spot someone who appears very drunk, high or confused and vulnerable to what the project calls drug and alcohol-facilitated sexual assault - say if they see someone slip a pill into a drink or overhear a troubling conversation. They learn skills like how to "check in" - which could be as simple as striking up a conversation about the band to gauge the situation - or the "distraction technique" when they are concerned about how two people are interacting. When it comes to drug use, the problem is that information about widely-used but potentially dangerous substances is not being shared at all. "When warnings get out there it's long after someone has had an adverse reaction," explained Caleb Chepesiuk, harm reduction coordinator at the AIDS Committee of Ottawa. "In Ottawa, we have no idea whether the MDMA is stronger than it used to be or adulterated - we don't have the ability to monitor. What we get is rumours and gossip in place of health information. This is the gap in harm reduction we're trying to address." The Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse reports that five young people died that summer alone at music festivals with alcohol, drugs or both as contributing factors. Among its recommendations were making sure there's enough water to avoid dehydration at events like dance parties, finding ways to quickly share word of bad drugs and considering checking services. While the test kits are cheap and simple, they don't indicate strength and only pick up one substance at a time, such as ketamine, which turns bright red, and MDMA, nearblack. It takes sophisticated equipment to pick up fentanyl - a major concern right now - and identify multiple substances through a checking service, which is the ultimate goal, Chepesiuk said. "It's peak party time," he said. "A lot of drug use is situational, not habitual. That doesn't mean people are not facing the same risks. "They may be less educated on the ways of making sure the drug is what it says it is." - --- MAP posted-by: Matt