UK’s Warehouse Project to launch on-site drug testing during 2013 season
The opening weekend of the Greater Manchester Warehouse Project was marked by tragedy this year as 30-year-old Nick Bonnie died in the hospital after consuming what he believed to be ecstasy. Over the course of the sold out Axwell-headlined Friday and Seth Troxler-manned Saturday, fifteen others were hospitalized, calling attention to the club’s impending government-funded drug testing plan.
Beginning on October 12th, the post-Ibiza party will be the pilot site of a testing program that quickly processes confiscated drugs in an on-site lab and sends out warnings of the contents via social media to clubgoers inside. The endeavor will be funded by the Home Office’s Centre for Applied Science and Technology, marking an unprecedented step in the battle against the PMA epidemic that has swept England and Wales.
Designed to prevent such events, the program was planned before Bonnie’s death, and Warehouse Project director Sacha Lord explained in a BBC interview that “This isn’t something that’s just happening at the Warehouse Project, this is a national issue.”
According to the Manchester Evening News, the Trafford club already goes to great lengths to keep its patrons safe, handing out flyers on the dangers of PMA to every patron, giving out water to clubbers on their way home and hosting a “welfare unit” staffed with medics.
The club maintains its zero-tolerance policy but hopes that the testing can prevent future tragedies: “We need to educate people about what’s going on, as there’s some nasty stuff out there,” Lord said. With an entire season of such names as The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers, Armin van Buuren, Richie Hawtin, Knife Party and more still set to perform, the dance community sincerely wishes the program success.
Source: BBC News
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