THE region's mental health trust has teamed up with a drug safety organisation in a bid to make bars and festivals safer.

The Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, based in Prestwich, and The Loop are offering training for clubs, bars and festivals to keep recreational drug users safer.

One day training will give staff a better understanding of the risks of recreational drug use. It gives them ways of reducing drug-related harm, the scope of the law and the effects of the most common drugs.

Fiona Measham, Director of The Loop, said: “The staff who work in clubs and festivals are at the front line of the problems caused by excessive consumption of intoxicants, sometimes of unknown strength and composition.

"This course will train event staff to identify problems and help equip them to reduce harm whilst promoting health and wellbeing in the night time economy.”