Debate contribution: Drug-testing Schemes

Debate contribution by Miss Órlaithí Flynn on 30 September 2025.

MLA

Miss Órlaithí Flynn

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

30 September 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Drug-testing Schemes

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5142989

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I beg to move

Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

At the heart of the motion in my name and those of my Sinn Féin colleagues is a simple but powerful principle: harm reduction saves lives. We are here today to discuss an issue that is not abstract but real, immediate and deeply human.

Each year, young people across these islands attend festivals and concerts to celebrate music, community and joy, yet, too often, those events are overshadowed by tragedy, with lives being cut short due to the consumption of unregulated and dangerous drugs. Harm reduction initiatives, particularly rapid drug-checking services, have been shown to save lives. The question that is before us is not whether those schemes work, because they do, but whether we are willing to act with the urgency and compassion that are needed to bring them here. Too many families across the North know only too well the devastation of losing a loved one to drugs. As Sinn Féin's spokesperson on suicide prevention, alcohol and addiction issues, I regularly meet families and community organisations who can see and feel the crisis up close. Their message is always the same: many of these tragedies are preventable if we are willing to act. In previous debates in the Chamber, we have discussed the Jack's Promise campaign by the Brennan family from Lenadoon in west Belfast and the specific issue of residential rehabilitation and providing services for people who are battling with addiction issues. We can pick that up in another conversation with the Minister of Health and his officials following today's debate. It is important, however, to illustrate that the scale of the crisis goes wider than people accidentally dying as a result of taking harmful drugs but encompasses wider drug use and addiction issues and the need for rehabilitation. The point is that we cannot underestimate the scale of the crisis. The Department of Health's figures show that, in 2022-23, nearly 3,000 people across the North sought help for problems with drug or alcohol use. The detail is stark. More than a third were struggling with drugs alone, and over half were using drugs daily. They were not occasional users but people who were caught in the grip of addiction, living with risk every single day. That is why harm reduction measures, such as rapid drug testing and drug checking, are urgently needed. It is important to be clear about what we mean. Drug checking allows people to anonymously surrender substances at festivals or concerts for on-site analysis. Dangerous or contaminated pills can then be identified, and public warnings can be issued within hours. Rapid drug testing is lab-based, confirms what is circulating more broadly in society and enables health authorities to issue alerts quickly across the community. Both are essential. One protects individuals in the moment, while the other protects the wider public. In recent correspondence that we shared, the Minister acknowledged the issues and the difficult situation that we are faced with. Even as far back as the launch of the new substance use strategic plan last November, I think that it was, the Minister pointed out that deaths from drugs misuse are almost six times higher in the most deprived communities than in the least deprived areas. He pointed out that really important fact and described it as unacceptable, and he was completely right. However, if we accept that as the unacceptable reality, we must also accept our collective responsibility to act. We need to try to do more and put more measures in place that might save lives. That is the context of the motion. We are calling for the introduction of rapid drug-testing and drug-checking services across the North. We do not need to look too far to see the benefits of such schemes. The Health Service Executive's Safer Nightlife programme has been running successfully at the Electric Picnic festival in County Laois for four years. Festivalgoers can surrender substances for testing in a health-led, non-judgemental space. Last year, the system identified MDMA pills that contained three times the adult dose. Those were pills that were already causing seizures and admissions to hospitals. Within hours, an alert was issued through the festival app to all attendees, preventing critical harm. That is the point of our motion: to try to prevent deaths by introducing some of those schemes. That form of testing is referred to as back-of-house testing, where people can drop the drugs off anonymously. It enables the medical experts to see what is circulating and to act quickly, without exposing festivalgoers to criminal risk. That is what a public health intervention is, but the safest choice is not to take drugs. That is why I warmly welcome the DUP 's amendment, especially its first line. It is the most important amendment that could have been made to our motion, and I thank you for that. It points out how harmful and dangerous drugs are. That is an important message that we need to get out to the members of the public who may be watching the debate. The reality for those who choose to take a drug, at whatever stage in their life or in whatever circumstance, is that we are basically trying to provide a safety net that might mean the difference between life and death. Scotland has established a rapid action —.

Yes, I do, and I thank the Member for that intervention. It is important that we pick up on that type of feedback, such as from that family, who, sadly, have already gone through that devastation. We absolutely need to put in place all the measures that we can to try to prevent those deaths. It was worrying to hear about that young person possibly not being transported to hospital in a timely manner. Training is critical. When we talk about introducing such schemes, we need to introduce them in the right way, and whoever is involved in that work needs to be required to have sufficient skills to deal with such a situation. Thank you very much for providing that wee bit of feedback, Jonathan. We know that those models are already in place across Britain and in the South. I have spoken to the Minister and to his predecessor about the Queen's University pilot model that was put in place by the university, Forensic Science NI and the PSNI, all of which have been part of the discussions up to this point. Queen's University indicated that equipment for the rapid drug-testing pilot and the testing facility could be procured for a relatively modest capital investment of £220,000. Comparing that with hospital beds makes it clear that that investment is feasible. Some positive steps have been taken. Critically, the Public Health Agency has rolled out a nitazene testing-strip programme across all needle exchange sites and, more recently, it introduced fentanyl strips in areas where those drugs are most prevalent. In response to a question recently, the Minister gave an update on NSPdirect, which is the confidential postal service that is now available. Those are all very important initiatives, and all those measures show what can be done and the difference that we can make to try to protect people. Basically, the motion calls for additional drug-testing and drug-checking schemes. The important thing is to get real-time analysis, particularly at large scale-events where substances can circulate very quickly and the risk therefore increases. The motion also calls for a joined-up system that can identify dangerous substances within hours and issue alerts to protect the public. It is not about condoning drug use but facing the reality that people will take drugs in certain circumstances and that we need to make their doing that as safe as possible. The Minister has often spoken about tackling stigma, and I completely agree with him on that. He is totally right that stigma will drive people into further harm, making it harder for families to get support. If we are serious about moving beyond stigma —

— we need to embrace evidence-based, public health approaches.

1,345 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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