[New Statesman] Staying in The Loop: the organisation testing drugs, one festival at a time

Young people using drugs to have a good time is not particularly new. Every generation has had its drug of choice; from LSD in the Sixties and Seventies, to cocaine in the Eighties and Nineties, and mixtures of whatever else in between and afterwards. 

But even as scores of people of all ages continue to use drugs, government policy was, until quite recently, mired in draconian ideas around criminal justice and abstention.

But however imperceptibly, the tides are turning. Public health officials, researchers and music festival organisers have increasingly come out in favor of drug testing. One of the organisations leading the way is the award winning harm reduction NGO The Loop, set up by Fiona Measham, a professor of criminology at Durham University, and drum and bass DJ Wilf Gregory.

The Loop made headlines last summer as it...

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