Why students were absolutely right to support drug testing kits

A motion submitted to the recent All Student Meeting proposed to mandate the SU to provide low cost drug testing kits, as well as supplying educational materials surrounding drugs. After another record year for drugs deaths in the UK, us students could  now stand to make a small step in the right direction.

As explicitly stated in the Warwick’s Drug Policy, it must be recognised that some students do and will continue to take drugs throughout their time at university. It is for this precise reason that advice on risk reduction when using drugs should be drilled into us. The SU cannot prevent students taking drugs, so why should it neglect its duty of care by refusing to accept reality?

Ensuring students are well informed when making choices about drugs is one of the SU’s main welfare-related objectives. Still, one may argue that such advice facilitates or normalises drug use. This is exactly why this information needs to go hand in hand with discouraging but providing honest warnings concerning illegal substance use. Statistics such as 95.5% of young adults have never tried ecstasy (ONS/ Home Office) disprove the common myth that “everyone does it”. The SU needs to attack the problem on two fronts. Obviously, it should absolutely discourage illegal substance abuse, but crucially it also must work to reduce the risk of harm to those who are not discouraged.  

Testing kits, although admittedly not 100% accurate, provide a helpful indication of what you have just bought

You may think the “don’t do it, but if you have to, do it this way…” approach sends mixed messages. The mother of a 15 year-old-girl who overdosed, Anne-Marie Cockburn, will tell you you’re wrong. After failing to find accurate and understandable information online about how to take drugs safely, Anne-Marie’s daughter died after swallowing a gram of highly pure ecstasy. It is hard to deny that had Anne-Marie’s daughter had access to clear information designed for young people, she may still be here today. Anne-Marie said “You’re not going to stop young people taking risks, experimenting. It’s about harm reduction.” Surely this cries out that given prevention is impossible, information is the most effective tool to protect young people.

As you swallow or rub onto your gums an unknown quantity of an unknown drug made in someone’s kitchen, has the thought ever crossed your mind: what am I actually taking? Testing kits, although admittedly not 100% accurate, provide a helpful indication of what you have just bought. If before a night out you find you have in fact been dealt PMA rather than MDMA, then it would be a good idea to avoid it completely. As PMA is more poisonous than ecstasy, it can be lethal at much lower doses. PMA related deaths have increased almost every year since 2010 and the only way to tell the difference between that and MDMA is using a testing kit.

These kits also test for purity. On average, pills now contain double the MDMA than what they did  in the 1990s. Thanks to the ASM, the SU may soon be able to provide these kits for as little as £2. This is significantly cheaper than online, and considering most students’ budgets are very tight, this may allow someone to make an important discovery about what they’re taking. If the daughter of Anne-Marie Cockburn had access to a testing kit for £2 from a non-judgemental and informative source, maybe she would have known that the MDMA she was taking was actually 91% pure. Manchester, Newcastle, LSE, and Sussex Students’ Unions have already implemented a scheme whereby students are able to purchase drug-testing kits to check the purity of the drugs they have purchased, with University of Reading following suit soon.

Manchester, Newcastle, LSE, and Sussex Students’ Unions have already implemented a scheme whereby students are able to purchase drug-testing kits

The SU must be commended for attempting to adopt a more modern and pragmatic approach to drug use. They are sacrificing the blissful ignorance and supposed moral high ground of “don’t do drugs” to make a helpful real-world difference. When it comes to drugs harming people, it is the lack of information that does the damage- not the drugs. People will always take drugs, so rather than only trying to stop them, help them be safe as well.