The charity’s mainly tested at summer music festivals since 2013, but has been granted permission by the government to test at both venues.
Katy says being able to test throughout the year allows The Loop to monitor trends in the “ever-changing” drug market more accurately.
“Every point in time that we’re testing, we’re getting real-time information,” she says.
“So if we have a pause in that, we’ve got some delay in terms of understanding.”
Katy says an example of those trends came during the summer, when one in ten MDMA pills tested contained 200 milligrams – a much higher strength than normal.
Katy says more recent testing has seen the frequency increase to one in four pills.
“That poses risk for people, if they think they might be taking something of lower strength and it turns out to be much stronger than they think it is,” she says.
