Move to make drug checking easier

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The Federal Council wants to make it easier to test recreational drugs for impurities and overdose risks.

It says the drug-checking service, which is common at festivals and clubs, is essential for harm reduction, but has been too hard to set up under current rules. 

Under the proposed change, cantons will handle authorisations directly rather than routing them through multiple federal bodies. 

The Geneva harm-reduction organisation Première Ligne welcomed the move and said a faster system could have improved its response to the recent crack crisis. 

Drug-checking sessions also include individual counselling that, the federal health office says, tends to reduce consumption.

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