A West Kootenay music festival has invested money into new tech aimed at keeping its revelers from overdosing.

Shambhala Music Festival, which opens Friday near Salmo, announced last week it had donated $10,000 to complete a two-year fundraising campaign for an FTIR Spectrometer, which cost $42,000 and can detect ingredients in substances.

The tech is owned and operated by the AIDS Network Kootenay Outreach and Support Society (ANKORS), which has been providing drug checking at the festival for 16 years.

sa国际传媒淪hambhala has supported ANKORS in this fundraising effort to obtain an FTIR Spectrometer for our community and to use at Shambhala every step of the way,sa国际传媒� said ANKORS drug checking co-ordinator Chloe Sage in a statement.

sa国际传媒淎fter two years we will finally see this instrument in action. Isa国际传媒檓 very excited to add the FTIR to our harm reduction service this year at Shambhala.sa国际传媒�

A study earlier this year by ANKORS and Interior Health Authority found fentanyl in over two dozen drug tests at last yearsa国际传媒檚 Shambhala.

Fentanyl was responsible for 81 per cent of the over 1,420 overdose deaths in B.C. last year.

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