Festival-goers at Shambhala music festival last weekend had unknowingly purchased drugs that contained Fentanyl, a deadly substance which is 100 times stronger than Heroin, according to ANKORS, an organization that’s offered drug testing at festivals.
The findings indicate that this drug was found cut into MDMA, Cocaine, Ketamine, and MXE.
This dangerous substance can kill a user with a dose as small as a few grains of sand. ANKORS posted 96 results, 9 of which came back positive for Fentanyl, one batch of what was meant to be Cocaine tested positive for 3-Methylfentanyl, also a dangerous opioid. A baggie of what was sold as Ketamine came back positive for MXE and Fentanyl.
Chloe Sage, prevention and education coordinator for ANKORS, said she was very surprised that Fentanyl was detected in the drugs at Shambhala festival in Canada.
“I live in BC, fentanyl is everywhere and I’ve seen many people die. But the people I’ve seen die, most of them aren’t in the stimulant festival scene.”
Sage said her hope is more music festivals will start doing this type of testing and posting their results to serve as an alarm system for festival-goers.
“We need to get this out there because people are going from this festival to that festival and it’s probably some of the same stuff going around.”
