Uruguay carries out its first ever drug testing initiative at festival

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Uruguay carries out its first ever drug testing initiative at festival

1 August 2016

By Caitlin Fitzgerald

On July 3 the electronic music festival La Terraza hosted a mobile laboratory where festival-goers could take their drugs to be tested. The Uruguayan human rights organisation ProDerechos teamed up with the Spanish harm reduction group Energy Control to provide the service.

A total of 135 tests were carried out on ecstasy, LSD, ketamine and cocaine. Five of these tests revealed substances containing potentially dangerous adulterants, three of which were pills found to contain MDMA mixed with caffeine, MCPP (a new ecstasy-like substance which can seriously affect the digestive system), and other unknown substances. A sample of LSD contained NBOM and a sample of cocaine had been cut with the dangerous anti-parasitic Levamisol.

ProDerechos declared the pill testing initiative to be “an historic day against hypocrisy.”

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Thumbnail: Flickr CC Richard Turner

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