Pill testing: the cure for music’s drug problem?

As Hard Summer ends in tragedy for the second year running, we ask if police-backed drug testing – recently trialled at SGP and Kendal Calling – could be the way forward

The Charlatans perform at Kendal Calling 2016, one of two UK festivals to introduce pill testing © Jody Hartley

The issue of drug deaths at dance music festivals was thrust once again into the spotlight this week following a spate of misfortunes for the Hard Summer event in California.

First, relatives of a 19-year-old woman, Katie Dix, who died after taking designer drugs (‘bath salts’) sold as ecstasy at the 2015 festival – one of two fatalities, along with 18-year-old Tracy Nguyen, who died from MDMA “intoxication” – announced they are suing promoter Live Nation for “turning a blind eye to the known risks” of drugs “in order to capitalise on teenagers and young adults who believed they were attending a safe party environment.”

Then news broke that three young people (Derek Lee, 22, Alyssa Dominguez, 21, and Roxanne Ngo, 22) had died at Hard Summer 2016 last…

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