With festival season nearly upon us, organisers have their work cut out for them making sure their events are ready to roll. It would certainly be worth putting in place some guidance for those you’ve hired for event jobs relating to legal highs, which are becoming ever more prevalent at festivals these days.

You need to make sure that festival-goers are able to enjoy your event safely, so working alongside your local police force to devise a policing plan is advisable to ensure the weekend runs smoothly.

This could include reminding people about the dangers of taking these drugs, which no doubt many festival-goers will assume are safe because they’re not illegal. Perhaps consider putting leaflets and brochures at various points around your festival site with information relating to these drugs so that people can arm themselves with all the knowledge they need.

Sitting down with your event staff and festival stewards to discuss the matter is also a good idea. Brief them on what they should do if they find someone who has had an adverse reaction to a drug and make sure you have an excellent first aid team on site who can react accordingly in an emergency.

The Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 actually comes into effect from May 26th, which gives police the power to arrest and prosecute anyone suspected of either supplying or offering psychoactive substances.

If you are concerned that people will be bringing legal highs to your festival, you could also consider using drugs dogs over the course of the event and searching all festival-goers at the gates when they come in.