{"id":472498,"date":"2026-05-29T05:10:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T05:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/472498\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T05:10:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T05:10:14","slug":"all-island-warning-over-drug-use-ahead-of-irish-festival-season-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/472498\/","title":{"rendered":"All-island warning over drug use ahead of Irish festival season \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Festival-goers on both sides of the border are being warned of drugs dangers including high-strength MDMA and so-called \u2018pink cocaine\u2019 at festivals this summer.<\/p>\n

A joint warning has ahead of festival season has been issued by the Public Health Agency (PHA) in the north and the Republic\u2019s Health Service Executive (HSE), in a bid to reduce the risks of drug-related harm.<\/p>\n

It follows research through engagement with readers of online Irish dance music site Four Four Magazine.<\/p>\n

Both health agencies are cautioning people over MDMA (ecstasy), one of the most popular festival drugs.<\/p>\n

\"Noah<\/a>\"Noah<\/a><\/p>\n

They said over 40% of MDMA tested by the HSE last year contained over twice the average adult dose, placing users at severe risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdding MDMA powders to drinks carries extra risk and is a concern for the PHA and HSE,\u201d the agencies have warned.<\/p>\n

They said pink powders sold as \u2018pink cocaine\u2019<\/a> \u2013 identified in the research as the main emerging drugs issue \u2013 \u201crarely contain cocaine and often include a mixture of ketamine and new drugs, making it unpredictable\u201d.<\/p>\n

The cross-border warning comes after members of Belfast City Council last month backed drug testing facilities at festival sites<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The PHA\u2019s Stephanie Hanlon said: \u201cThe collaboration with the HSE is a significant step in having a coordinated harm reduction response to substance use across the island.\u201d<\/p>\n

She continued: \u201cOver the coming months people will travel north and south for festivals and gigs. These occasions should be memorable for the right reasons and we want everyone to enjoy themselves and get home safely. While it\u2019s safest not to use drugs at all, we know that some people may choose to use substances at festivals and events, so our priority is to help reduce the possible harm.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Festival-goers on both sides of the border are being warned of drugs dangers including high-strength MDMA and so-called…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[424,103,2120,61,60,157216,203932],"class_list":["post-472498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-drugs","tag-health","tag-hse","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mdma","tag-pha"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}