A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
The return of a confidential drug-checking service for Rhythm and Vines festival-goers was successful in keeping them safe, after discovering fake drugs at the event, the New Zealand Drug Foundation says.
“We had a very busy and successful few days at R&V having important harm reduction conversations with heaps offestival goers and checking over 1000 samples,” foundation deputy executive director Ben Birks Ang said.
“Most samples we checked were what people thought they had, but we did find some that were thought to be MDMA but instead were synthetic cathinones (e.g. eutylone, dimethylpentalone) and some that contained multiple stimulants (e.g. MDMA and one or two other synthetic cathinones).
“Drug checking isn’t just about the results of the tests, and we’re really pleased that the conversations we had helped a lot of harm reduction information to be shared.
“Most people brought in samples for their friend group, and would take the information back to them to talk about how to look out for each other.
“Our testing also gave us real time info about what was out there so we could help all of the great medical and safe space teams at R&V be prepared, and share important info to the festival community more widely.
“We had a lot of conversations about the effects of the heat, interactions with alcohol, and giving your body time to rest over the multi-day festival.
It is the second year running the NZ Drug Foundation provided the service, which allowed people to check a sample of recreational substances.
