“Their drugs all tested as expected.”

The NY Times published an article about the Shambhala music festival’s approach to harm reduction ¹:

Shambhala’s harm reduction efforts go well beyond testing. It has a 12-bed field hospital, run by an emergency room doctor and staffed by 30 physicians; roaming teams of harm reduction counselors; and an area called the Sanctuary, with 50 hammocks and mattresses for people having bad drug trips or suffering from exhaustion.

Despite the robust approach, the 4-day festival has quite a few adverse events ¹:

Even with these precautions, 600 to 800 serious medical issues occur each year at Shambhala, many related to drugs, including cases involving decreased consciousness, agitation, psychosis and the occasional seizure, said the festival’s medical director, Dr. Brendan Munn, an anesthesiologist in Ontario.

It also looks like there were some issues spilling over into the surrounding communities ²:

“We asked people before the event to make sure they allowed drugs to clear their system before driving, but too many ignored that advice,” says Sergeant Michael McLaughlin with BC Highway Patrol. “It looks like we will have to be back next year, and hopefully in greater numbers, to deal with festivalgoers who are driving unsafely.”

A couple of other things leaped out to me.

First, alcohol is prohibited ¹:

The family [property owners] has drawn a harder line on alcohol, insisting that the festival not allow it; booze added danger, they said, particularly when combined with drugs, and aggressive behavior they thought made young women in particular uncomfortable.

Alcohol is a massive public health burden and is associated with all sorts of negative externalities, so the desire to eliminate it from this kind of environment isn’t shocking. However, it legitimates banning a substance as a legitimate option and, with prohibition affirmed as a legitimate option, it’s interesting that alcohol is the only substance that is not tolerated. (I did notice that their code of conduct officially bans all illegal substances, though it appears they affirmatively tolerate drugs, but not alcohol.)

Second, the comments from one of the attendees makes one wonder to what degree the festival’s culture creates a permission structure for attendees to use drugs that they wouldn’t otherwise use¹:

. . . Dawson said he doesn’t use drugs often in his regular life, but acknowledged that he’d taken more than ketamine that night: LSD and MDMA, and “I smoked weed, but that doesn’t really count,” he said. He didn’t get his drugs tested because he thought he could trust the friend who gave them to him. Asked whether he knew what was really in them, he said, “I guess not.”

As he stood in front of the medical tent, he said he’d not be coming back to Shambhala. Then he reconsidered and said he’d at least take a few years off. “I need to work on my self-control,” he said. “I am not strong enough to handle my substances in a place that gives you this much free range.”

Dawson experienced a drug-related injury that couldn’t be adequately treated at the festival despite his drugs testing as expected.