NSW deputy state coroner Harriet Grahame recently recommended the implementation of pill testing and the removal of drug dogs at music festivals to prevent people from taking substances that can prove fatal, panic overdosing and preloading on drugs to avoid police detection.
NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian came out on Wednesday with her government’s response to these life-saving recommendations made by an expert charged with ascertaining why six young people died in drug-related circumstances at festivals over the last two summers.
And what did Berejiklian announce? She’s going to implement amnesty bins at festivals, which are designed to be an accompaniment to pill testing operations. They allow people – who’ve had their drugs tested to see if they could prove fatal – to throw them out.
The premier said the provision of bins will allow people that “see police or other activity” to not panic, but throw their drugs away. “Other activity” is presumably code for drug dogs. And as well, Gladys saw fit to declare that she’s “closing the door” on pill testing.
What is she on, anyway?
Respectfully, Ms Berejiklian has never taken any drugs, neither does she have a medical background, and further, she ignores the evidence-based recommendations made by the experts, so she has no idea how ridiculous and harmful what she’s saying in regard to these issues actually is.
Although, the premier could consider a couple of things before she gets more blood on her hands, such as people have pretty much always taken drugs and the fact that some die, hasn’t stopped this. Just in the same way that alcohol deaths haven’t prevented people from enjoying a glass of chardy.
When people go to the trouble of sourcing drugs and paying for them, they don’t expect to die, as the majority of them don’t. When they preload prior to a festival, or panic ingest, they don’t expect to die then either. They’re actually trying to avoid drug dogs and strip searching obsessed police.
If Ms Berejiklian followed the deputy coroner’s recommendations, young people could walk into a festival have their drugs tested, have a discussion with a health expert, avoid taking potentially lethal doses or toxic substances and they could even use her thoughtfully provided bins if they chose to.
And let’s face it, there’s always going to be that person who refuses to use their seatbelt, even though it’s provided, and ends up paying with their life because of it.
A veteran in preventing drug deaths
The harm reduction programs Dr Alex Wodak has played an integral part in seeing rolled out have saved countless lives in this country. On whether the amnesty bin idea is going to save lives, he said “the answer, unfortunately, is a clear no”.
And as far as the president of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation is concerned, the door is definitely still open on “further discussion of pill testing to reduce deaths”. He added that while “saturation policing, strip searches and sniffer dogs might be clever politics”, they don’t work.
“At some time in the future, state and territory governments throughout Australia will accept the overwhelming arguments for providing testing at youth music events and also at fixed sites,” Dr Wodak told Sydney Criminal Lawyers.
“Until policy changes, there will be more needless, preventable deaths.”
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