Blood analyses from 41 Fusion Festival 2008 ravers.

[Alfa]

I laughed my ass of when I read this, because who in their right mind would agree to a blood analysis on a techno festival? The answer in 37 cases is: those who have ingested so many different drugs, that they probably find it most humorous to fuck with the researchers heads.



“Better living through chemistry” – Results of blood analyses from 41 participants of the Fusion Festival 2008
K. Rust, D. Bregel, M. Hopf, S. Kunz, S. Steinmeyer, Kristian Lettau, Gernod Rücker, J. Wilske, T. Kraemer
Saarland University; Draeger Safety

Objective: “Far from everyday life there are four days of parallel society of a special kind … looking for a possibly better world”. This is the motto of the so called Fusion Festival which takes place every year on a former Russian military airfield in the middle of nowhere in northern Germany. Blood samples given voluntarily by 41 participants of this special techno event were analyzed by routine procedures and by custom made methods for more exotic analytes.

Methods: The blood samples were first analyzed by our routine methods, including immunoassay pre-screening (Orasure, PA, USA) followed by GC-MS confirmation. Positive LSD results were confirmed by LC-MS. By request of the ordering entity 34 more analytes were screened for. Therefore, a LC-MS/MS method was developed (Shimadzu Prominence / Applied Biosystems 3200 Q-Trap). Information dependent acquisition was used (survey scan: MRM; dependent scan: enhanced product ion scan) and the resulting spectra were compared to those from our in-house library.

Results and Discussion:
Ethanol was present in 21 samples.
20 Samples were positive for amphetamine.
22 for MDMA.
Cocaine (benzoylecgonine) could be found in 7 samples.
22 samples were positive for cannabinoids (16 for THC itself)
9 for GHB.
LSD was confirmed in 4 blood samples.
Concerning benzodiazepines, diazepam was found in 3 cases.
The NMDA receptor antagonist Ketamine could be detected in 4 cases.
The samples were also checked for the new designer drugs TFMPP, mCPP and BZP, with mCPP being positive in 2 samples.

For the fusionist, “looking for a better world” implies the use of drugs. Only 4 out of 41 blood samples were free of the tested mind-expanding substances. Interestingly, the organizers of the festival only condemned the use of GHB posting on the web site: “Do NOT tolerate GHB! GHB is fucked up - end of story!

Reputation Comments on this post:

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