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A crew of volunteers with an Ohio-based nonprofit handed out 2,500 doses of a nasal spray model of naloxone, an overdose reversal drug, at this yr’s Bonnaroo music competition.
Amy Harris/Invision through AP
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Amy Harris/Invision through AP

A crew of volunteers with an Ohio-based nonprofit handed out 2,500 doses of a nasal spray model of naloxone, an overdose reversal drug, at this yr’s Bonnaroo music competition.
Amy Harris/Invision through AP
A 26-year-old was discovered useless at his campsite through the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Pageant in 2019. The toxicology report linked his dying to a grim development that has solely worsened since. In his system have been each Ecstasy and fentanyl — a harmful mixture, particularly if folks do not know the celebration drug accommodates the extremely potent artificial opioid.
Attendees of multiday live performance festivals like Bonnaroo, held on an remoted farm in Espresso County, Tenn., do not appear to have a lot bother sneaking tablets and powders previous safety. And people medication could be laced with fentanyl, which is 50 to 100 instances stronger than morphine, and the rationale why medics who work at these occasions carry the overdose reversal remedy naloxone today. However first responders cannot be all over the place, and the fast-acting drug must be administered rapidly.

“We’re displaying up with it in large portions,” mentioned Ingela Travers-Hayward, whose Ohio-based nonprofit This Must Be the Place is flooding festivals with Kloxxado, a nasal spray model of the lifesaving medication. “We wish to transfer across the campground and proactively hand this out.”
Travers-Hayward and her husband, William Perry, who turned a rehabilitation counselor after dependancy despatched him to jail for a decade, are crisscrossing the nation this summer season distributing doses of Kloxxado which have been donated by the producer, Hikma Prescription drugs. Their summer season tour wraps up at Burning Man within the Black Rock Desert of Nevada on Labor Day weekend.
Music festivals as soon as frowned upon naloxone, and a few banned it. However though what’s often called hurt discount — the idea of minimizing the detrimental results of illicit drug use with out making an attempt to cease it altogether — has gained acceptance, it is from embraced. Much less accepted than naloxone amongst live performance promoters helps folks take a look at their medication for fentanyl. Firms do not wish to be seen as condoning drug use. They’re additionally navigating a authorized grey space and battling public perceptions.
Hurt-reduction advocates picketed outside Bonnaroo in 2019 as a result of the competition didn’t enable testing of leisure medication to search for fentanyl. Stay Nation, which is almost all proprietor of Bonnaroo and among the many largest live performance promoters on the planet, did not reply on to questions on whether or not it now permits fentanyl testing, saying in an e mail that Bonnaroo is all the time on the lookout for methods “to care for and educate our patrons.”
Assist from the federal government
Overdose deaths proceed to climb within the U.S. Drug fatalities topped 100,000 nationwide in 2021, with two-thirds brought on by artificial opioids. This has prompted federal and state governments to attempt to think about new methods to fight the disaster, with the Biden administration giving $30 million to assist applications which have typically operated within the shadows. Prior to now few years, the Substance Abuse and Psychological Well being Providers Administration additionally has totally embraced fentanyl take a look at kits.
Nonetheless, many communities far past music competition grounds are immune to harm-reduction methods, particularly fentanyl-testing instruments. Dr. Yngvild Olsen, director of SAMHSA’s Middle for Substance Abuse Therapy, mentioned hurt discount requires an evolution in considering, and she or he encourages organizations to think about hurt discount a lifesaving device — particularly when mass overdoses are attainable.
“The lethality of fentanyl has so modified the sport, as a result of it solely takes somewhat bit to have somebody cease respiration,” Olsen mentioned. “If we’ve these very efficient instruments that we all know can save folks’s lives, I feel that is what we will rally round.”
Public well being businesses increasingly recommend that even individuals who do not use medication carry naloxone, which could be obtained via a prescription or over-the-counter, although legal guidelines range in several states. However typically the federal government takes a again seat in finishing up harm-reduction efforts, relying as a substitute on nonprofits and volunteers.
“It is a nice line to stroll, and well being departments attempt to keep throughout the bounds of the legislation whereas additionally speaking actively, making an attempt to get good public well being schooling on the market,” mentioned Lori Tremmel Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials.
However only a few folks deliver reversal remedy with them to live performance venues, Perry mentioned, and monitoring down free doses could be troublesome. “It isn’t one thing any individual places on their to-do checklist.”
For these prepared to purchase it, even the generic varieties could be costly. And name-brand reversal kits price more than $100 every with out insurance coverage.
“What we’re studying is that every one of those folks know what naloxone is — they’ve even identified individuals who have come again to life due to naloxone,” Travers-Hayward mentioned. “However we’re capable of be the individuals who give them their precise first package.”
She and a crew of volunteers handed out 2,500 doses at this yr’s Bonnaroo. One death occurred on the four-day occasion in June, though the toxicology report that might point out whether or not an overdose was in charge has not been launched.
Legal guidelines and insurance policies about handing out such drug-safety instruments range by state. Naloxone, as an example, technically stays a prescription drug, so handing it out means counting on good Samaritan laws that protect organizations and other people from authorized legal responsibility.
Though extra states, including Tennessee, are decriminalizing fentanyl test strips, they continue to be labeled as illegal drug paraphernalia by some states. And even in states the place take a look at strips are authorized, big-time festivals nonetheless do not welcome them publicly, due to issues about legal responsibility or picture.
“They’ve up to now given us a protracted checklist of insurance coverage necessities,” mentioned the founding father of Bunk Police, an organization that surreptitiously sells take a look at kits at festivals. “We have now scoured the planet, I child you not, for underwriters that may insure us on this circumstance.”
The founder, who goes by Adam Auctor, would not share his actual title — he fears for his security as a result of he traces laced medication to particular sellers and tries to steer them to destroy their provide. He has testimonial movies that present sellers in tears after realizing their medication might have killed somebody. However others usually are not so grateful, he mentioned.
Auctor mentioned he has been kicked out of Bonnaroo twice and now not goes. However he sneaks into numerous different festivals a couple of days early, parking his truck — crammed with hundreds of take a look at kits — within the woods to evade safety till he can mix in with the throngs. “We barely even ask for permission to return anymore,” he mentioned. “We all know they’ll say ‘no’ to us.”
However the want is nice, he mentioned.
“Drug-checking shouldn’t be an choice anymore,” mentioned Mitchell Gomez, govt director of DanceSafe, a nonprofit that gives drug checking and different public well being schooling at nightclubs and celebration venues. “It is a factor that anybody who makes use of substances has to do.”
DanceSafe follows guidelines set by promoters, though Gomez wouldn’t reveal which festivals are cooperative. The place allowed, the nonprofit units up a tent with a tabletop machine that screens medication for fentanyl.
Main reason behind dying
Overdoses — typically from substances laced with fentanyl — at the moment are the top cause of dying for People ages 18 to 45. The grim development line has softened some promoters, Gomez mentioned, however not all of them.
Though company authorized groups stay leery, Gomez mentioned, he sees potential legal responsibility working in each instructions. “If any individual dies at your occasion from one thing DanceSafe might have prevented and we reached out to you about being on-site and also you turned us down, I truly suppose that most likely created some legal responsibility as nicely,” he mentioned.
Generally he is welcomed at a competition however banned from checking medication. So Gomez arms out details about the risks of fentanyl and provides away earplugs — a much less controversial method to assist folks keep protected at festivals.
This text is from a partnership that features Nashville Public Radio and Kaiser Well being Information. KHN is a nationwide newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about well being points. It’s an editorially impartial working program of KFF (Kaiser Household Basis).
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