Drug testing organisation shut down at Bonnaroo

Drug testing kit providers The Bunk Police were shut down and had their supplies confiscated by security at Bonnaroo last weekend, according to the organisation's CEO Adam Auctor.

In a post on Reddit Auctor said the group, operating at the festival for the fifth time, were approached by Bonnaroo's Mounted Patrol security soon after setting up and were detained before having their possessions searched.

According to Auctor, security told them if someone used their kit and overdosed Bonnaroo would be liable and they were stealing from vendors who had paid to be there, though the group had applied for a permit numerous times themselves and never heard back.

The Bunk Police were allegedly given the option of being thrown out of the festival and their supplies returned to them outside, or their supplies would be confiscated and returned at the end of the event.

The group chose to remain at the festival however their supplies, including 5,000 individual tests, radios and personal items, were forwarded to police instead of being returned and money that had been confiscated disappeared.

Despite the unpleasant experience, Auctor said The Bunk Police would return to Bonnaroo next year.

"So many young and uninformed individuals attend for the sole purpose of using substances, many of them with next to zero information on the subject," he said.

"If you plan to attend in 2016, please order a test kit from us or another provider before you go. We'll be much harder to find."

Tennessee is notably one of the most conservative US states on the issue of a harm-minimisation approach to drug-taking at festivals, with Coffee County District Attorney Craig Northcott recently stating he would not continue his predecessor's policy of allowing festival-goers to pay inflated fines and avoid appearing in court on minor citations.

Read Adam Auctor's full post here.