Urgent Spain warning for Brits as boozy tourists push locals 'to the brink'
Services have been pushed to the brink in Ibiza due to partying holidaymakers.
The ambulance service on the Spanish island is facing collapse, a union has warned, due to the huge number of clubbers falling ill after taking drugs. A third of all call-outs the ambulance service makes are to clubs, some of which can hold as many as 10,000 ravers.
It is the latest strain on the Balearic island, which attracts around 3.4 million tourists a year—many times more than its 160,000 permanent residents.
The president of the local health services union, José Manuel Maroto, told elDiario.es that club owners must start forking out for private ambulances to help ease the burden on the service.
'It's inconceivable that businesses with an income of millions of euros a year can't provide this service, which is saturating the emergency services at the expense of the local population,' he said.
Do you have experience of this side of clubbing in Ibiza? Email webtravel@reachplc.com
'The clubs are obliged to employ nurses and other health workers, but not ambulances—the cost of which is borne by public services.' According to Maroto, only one major club, DC-10, uses a private service.
Although the dealing of recreational drugs such as MDMA is illegal on Ibiza, as it is in the rest of Spain, many dealers operate on the island. The high cost of drinks in many of the superclubs means taking illicit substances is often cheaper.
The Hollywood star Will Smith was at the inauguration last month of UNVRS, the island's biggest club, where the cheapest entry is €100 (£86) and drinks can cost €25.
A study by the local paper El Diario de Ibiza showed that the island is the third most expensive destination in the Mediterranean after Saint-Tropez and Capri.
'Sadly or not, drugs are the cheaper option. Not trying to vouch for them, just saying. Drinks are crazy expensive—a vodka soda should be around €22–25, but even a beer is €16–18. Club entry is €50–100,' one Reddit user recently wrote on a forum about the costs of clubbing in Ibiza.
Unlike in the UK, where venues that serve alcohol are legally obliged to provide free water to customers, clubs in Ibiza make a huge amount of money from selling it bottled and canned to dehydrated drug takers. According to one person on Ibiza Spotlight, they were charged €13 for a 330ml can of water in the superclub Pacha.
Data on the number of recent drug deaths in Ibiza is hard to come by. However, a 2017 study in European Psychiatry found that 58 drug-related fatalities were recorded in Ibiza from 2010 to 2016. Of those, 87% were men, while more than a third were Brits—by far the biggest single group.
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