Critical Appraisal of Illicit Drug Use at Music Festivals

This essay provides a critical appraisal of a study on illicit drug use at music festivals, focusing on the research design, results, and conclusions. It discusses the impact of drug testing and pill testing methods on drug use behaviors and highlights the limitations of the study. The essay also includes a case study analysis and concludes with the advantages and disadvantages of drug testing at music festivals.

Running head: HEALTHCARE
Topic: HEALTHCARE
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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Introduction
Over the years there has been increased cases of illicit drug use and its abuse in
various places and international music events. Illicit drugs are referred to as the illegal
substances and these highly addictive drugs which are usually considered as substance use
(Berning, Comptom & Wochinger, 2015). Use of illicit substance use is often marked by
physical abundance .Tolerance is followed by the use of illicit drugs which increases the need
of the substance after the first use. Establishment of tolerance is followed by the symptoms of
withdrawal after stopping the use of the substance (Mayer & Schaub, 2015). There are
various physiological effects of the use of illicit drugs. Such symptoms may cause seizures as
well as heart palpitations which usually depends on the type of drugs used (Orsolini et al.,
2015). The following essay would deal with the critical appraisal of the paper and highlight
on the various issues focused by the author and explained accordingly.
Discussion
Part A: Critical Analysis
Music festival attendees’ illicit drug use, knowledge and practices regarding drug
content and purity: a cross-sectional survey Niamh Day2,4† , Joshua Criss2,4† ,
Benjamin Griffiths 2,4† , Shireen Kaur Gujral 2,4† , Franklin John-Leader1 , Jennifer
Johnston3,4 and Sabrina Pit2,3,4*
The main author of the paper is Niamh Day who has been working with the people
mentioned as secondary authors and found the various effects of illegal drug testing on
people. His research work has been affiliated with the researchers of Western Sydney. His
research work involves the role of ecstasy and its effect on the people. This statistical study

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has been among the people who have participated in the music festival at Australia which has
been a major part of the sexual health promotion stall. Thus this statistical study is biased to
some extent as only those people has been considered for the study which have attended only
the Australian festival. For an unbiased generalized opinion about the effectively of drug
testing methods, the studies should be taken at various music festivals all across Australia.
Moreover, another factor for the biasness is the choice of participants only during daylight
(Day et al., 2018).
The basic research question has been aimed at investing the patterns as well as
proportion of the issues involving illicit drug use among young people along with their
attitudes aimed towards the drug checking at music festival in Australia. Moreover the
research question focuses on the impact of drug checking and pill testing like methods on the
drug use behaviors. The hypothesis which has been formulated for the given research study
aimed at evaluating the effects of drug testing among attendees at Australian music festivals
are that festival goers along with the general population are much more vulnerable to the
various harmful outcomes and thus are considered as important target groups which are to be
targeted for issues involving education as well as harm reduction. The alternative hypothesis
put forward by the author Niamh Day et al (2018) is that only festival attendees are not the
target population for the processes like drug testing.
Regarding the research design of the particular study taken, the data which has been
collected has been predominantly based on quantitative analysis, with the exception of only
one question which has been open ended and been centered on a qualitative basis asking
people about the purity of the drugs used by them during the pill testing at festivals. Two
types of pilot studies have been done among the main groups of the people who are young
adults (Vaessen et al., 2017). The young people have been representatives of the target
audience where the data collection tolls have been refined after every wave. The choice of the

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method for the aforementioned statistical study has been appropriate as the qualitative
analysis through survey and further statistically analysis based on the responses of the
attendees would give an account of the effectiveness of the process. Moreover the concepts of
drug prevention, education and harm reduction would be best explained through the
explanation of the responses from the affected people during the festival.
The method for the statistical procedure has been divided into two parts. The first part
would include the development of the survey and the evaluation of the outcome measures.
Then it would be followed by recruitment followed by the process of data collection. The
survey covered the issues of demographics, the prevalence of illicit drug use along with the
attitude aimed at drug checking services. Data collection methods have been done for two
days at the festivals at the Australian festival and the age group selected has been 18-3 years.
The survey included independent participation of the attendees through a paper based
method. However incentive have ot been provided. This has been followed data analysis
methods through SPP long with square tests and the formulation for the significant values.
The choices of the methods has been appropriated as they have been aimed at finding the
significance of the variable considered.
The results and conclusions have been well identified and the research question of
addressing the sensitive issue of drug testing has been answered and justified as well.
Moreover, the concepts considered during the evaluation of the hypothesis including
education and harm reduction have been justified in the conclusion. Overall, regarding the
critical appraisal of the paper the author has been successful in criticizing the paper and
pointing out the flaws in the paper including the advantage and the disadvantages. Moreover,
there has been proper explanation behind the choice of the methods. The limitations which
has been stated in the study produces incorrect results which leads to biasness of the results
and there is deflection from the original values.

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Part B: Case study analysis
From the following case study it can be understood that Emily’s other is skeptical of
the fact that there would be drug testing at the event she would attend. Thus there should be
proper evaluation of the pros and cons of the methods before undergoing the testing
procedures. From the paper, it can be understood that the statistical enablers for the statistical
analysis. Moreover the forensic tests result which has been done are done intricately. Thus
the various statistical studies which has been done are an enabler for this paper. However
there has been some limitations regarding the analytic process. Moreover, there has been
batch specific limitations in the study. Moreover there has been problems regarding the
consideration of the pilot studies. The brief interventions which has been done include non-
ideal conditions, the pilot study has also posed a number of challenges regarding the attempt
to assess the efficacy of the study. Moreover the service users have been unable to fully
engage in the intervention and also have been unable to provide informed consent after a
suicidal time period. Thus these factors have been considered as the barriers for this statistical
analysis study (Measham, 2018).
Conclusion
Various abuse disorders due to illegal substance use often involves psychological
disorder according to the dependence of the substance. Such physiological dependence is
often characterized by subjective feeling which is often needed by the user for feeling
normal. Thus it can be concluded that drug testing has its own advantages and disadvantages
for people attending music festival where there are increased chances of illegal drug testing.

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References
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Day, N., Criss, J., Griffiths, B., Gujral, S. K., John-Leader, F., Johnston, J., & Pit, S. (2018).
Music festival attendees’ illicit drug use, knowledge and practices regarding drug
content and purity: a cross-sectional survey. Harm reduction journal, 15(1), 1.
Maier, L. J., & Schaub, M. P. (2015). The use of prescription drugs and drugs of abuse for
neuroenhancement in Europe. European Psychologist.
Measham, F. C. (2018). Drug safety testing, disposals and dealing in an English field:
Exploring the operational and behavioural outcomes of the UK’s first onsite ‘drug
checking’service. International Journal of Drug Policy.
Orsolini, L., Francesconi, G., Papanti, D., Giorgetti, A., & Schifano, F. (2015). Profiling
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Vaessen, B. E., van den Beemt, A., van de Watering, G., van Meeuwen, L. W., Lemmens, L.,
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