Recreational Drug Use at a Music Festival: A Dual Approach Using Hair Biomarkers Analysis and Participant...

Area of Science:

• Toxicology
• Psychopharmacology
• Public Health

Background:

• Substance use at music festivals poses public health challenges.
• Accurate assessment of drug consumption is crucial for harm reduction.
• Self-reported data may be unreliable for understanding drug use patterns.

Purpose of the Study:

• To characterize substance use at an international music festival.
• To integrate objective toxicological findings with self-reported data.
• To validate self-reported drug consumption patterns using biological measures.

Main Methods:

• Quantitative hair analysis using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.
• Survey data collection from 249 music festival attendees.
• Detection of psychoactive substances and metabolites in hair samples.

Main Results:

• 50% of participants tested positive for at least one substance in hair samples.
• Cocaine, MDMA, and ketamine were the most frequently detected drugs.
• Discrepancies between self-reported non-use and positive hair tests for MDMA and ketamine were observed.

Conclusions:

• Integrating objective toxicological data with self-reports enhances the reliability of substance use assessments.
• Self-reported data has limitations in accurately reflecting drug consumption, particularly for MDMA and ketamine.
• Combined approaches are essential for monitoring polydrug use in high-risk populations like festival attendees.