Pubdate: Fri, 05 Aug 2016
Source: Nelson Star (CN BC)
Page: A3
Copyright: 2016 Black Press
Contact:  http://www.bclocalnews.com/kootenay_rockies/nelsonstar/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4866
Author: Will Johnson

DANGERS OF DESIGNER DRUGS FRONT AND CENTRE

Stacey Lock has been working in the harm reduction tent at Shambhala 
Music Festival for eight years now, but she's never seen the party 
scene like this before. According to her the province-wide fentanyl 
emergency has everyone on edge, including the festival's organizers.

"It's really affecting the party scene because it's changing the 
climate. It's getting sketchy. Not too long ago it felt like you 
could know what you were doing and if you didn't know we could tell 
you," Lock, who is the festival's harm reduction director, told the Star.

"Now we've got chemists coming up with designer, black market drugs 
and half the time we have no idea what we're looking at. We have to 
do research on the fly."

The biggest problem: they can't test for fentanyl.

"Right now it's being cut into things like E or coke or any kind of 
party drug. Even if a little speck gets in there and you're not an 
opiate user you could overdose very, very quickly."

And it's not even the worst drug out there - Chinese import W-18 is 
also starting to make an appearance, with seizures reported in 
Vancouver and elsewhere, and it's reported to have 1,000 times the 
potency of morphine.

"Because of the B.C. state of emergency and all the deaths that have 
been occurring, we felt the need to bump up our services and educate people."

Shambhala already has a six-pronged approach to harm reduction, with 
an ambitious medical and sexual health team, a "sanctuary" for those 
having a bad trip and a female-only area to help prevent sexual 
assaults. But Lock said this year's situation has inspired them to up 
their game even further.

That's why the festival is crowd-funding for a mass spectrometer, a 
$250,000 machine capable of testing drugs more thoroughly than their 
current equipment, but it won't be in action until at least next year.

"And the machine will be at ANKORS year-round, so Shambhala will have 
it for five days and Nelson will have it for the rest of the year. 
It's going to be available there four days a week for residents to 
test their drugs."

The festival has looked into provincial funding but has been 
unsuccessful. They're going to keep crowd-funding to purchase the 
machine until they reach their goal.

"It takes time to calibrate all the drugs in order to be able to test 
for it. We're also going to need lab technicians, but already we've 
had so many people contact us to say they can run these machines and help."

But testing your drugs is only one aspect of staying safe, according to Lock.

"First of all, simple party tip is to test-drive your drugs. Start 
small because you can dose up but you can't dose down. Stick with the 
buddy system, and if your friend goes down, artificial respiration is 
your most important tool."

She said their volunteers have been trained with Nalaxone, a 
medication used to block the effects of opioids, especially in overdose.

"We're going to train first responders so they're on the ground 
ready. We're also going to have an SOS number and we're going to be 
giving people information about fentanyl at the gate."

And the stakes are huge.

"Whether you're personally affected or you have compassion for other 
people that are vulnerable to overdosing...this is an initiative that 
can help save lives."

Their goal is to be "upstream" rather than "crisis-oriented."

"If we're upstream and educating and helping people stay safe, then 
we won't be dealing so much with crisis intervention and we'll be 
saving a lot of heartbreak."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom