poledriver
Bluelighter
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THE approach to drugs at music festivals and clubs doesn’t work and will lead to more deaths unless pill testing is made available at festivals, an expert has told news.com.au.
Matt Noffs, chief executive officer of the Noffs Foundation, which works with young people with drug and alcohol problems, said the solution to preventing deaths was in education, not prohibition.
The warning follows a renewed call for drug testing stations at events, to check the content of pills, powders and tabs, after the death of Sylvia Choi at Sydney’s Stereosonic Festival at the weekend.
NSW Greens MLC David Shoebridge said radical measures were needed because festival-goers were continuing to take drugs of dubious origin.
“There have been too many deaths to stick with business as usual,” the upper house MP told news.com.au.
“It’s well past the time we had a grown-up conversation on harm reduction and that means moving beyond a purely law-and-order response to drugs.”
DRUG TESTING
Mr Shoebridge said amnesty bins should be provided at festivals where people could dump drugs without fear of prosecution and testing stations should be set up inside venues so festival-goers could know what their stash really contained.
“Giving people accurate information on drugs is plain common sense, especially when we know they are being produced by criminals with no concern for what’s in them,” he said.
“Much of Europe and the UK have acknowledged drug testing kits are part of the solution to reduce harm, it’s only bloody-minded ideology from the police that is preventing their use in Australia,” Mr Shoebridge said.
In August, Canada’s Shambhala music festival offered a drug checking service where attendees could sacrifice a small piece of a pill or a sliver of a tab to check its contents, reported Mixmag.
CUT WITH DEADLY DRUGS
In September, a Vice magazine journalist tested the illegal stashes of partygoers at the UK’s Bestival music event. While some drugs were indeed what people were expecting, others were little more than indigestion and heartburn pills crushed together. Far more worrying, the test results also revealed some ecstasy pills appeared to be cut with para-Methoxyamphetamine, or PMA, a far stronger and more toxic drug than MDMA, which may have been responsible for 100 deaths in the UK.
Noffs Foundation CEO Matt Noffs said it was time for a new approach.
“The reality is we know most young people have tried illicit substances and many of those will have used ecstasy,” Mr Noffs told news.com.au.
“‘Say no to drugs’ doesn’t work … and to think that our laws are blindly pushing through hoping it will work is foolhardy and is costing young lives. Harm reduction is much more effective.”
In a small online twitter survey of 1000 people, conducted by Mr Noffs just days before Stereosonic, he found 72 per cent of people favoured pill testing over drug dogs.
HOW MANY DEATHS?
Mr Noffs criticised the police’s zero-tolerance approach to cracking down on illicit substances.
“The police should be about saving lives, not exacerbating the issue,” he said.
“How many deaths are we going to have by January and whose hands should it be on?
“Some will say the [responsibility is with the] young people taking them, but we’re talking about children mostly and while I don’t want my children using ecstasy, harm reduction measures and education can reduce the harm of and reduce the use of drugs.”
Commenting after the death of Mr Pauljevic in September, emergency physician and illicit drug use expert David Caldicott said drug checking had been proven to minimise death and injuries overseas.
At many European festivals, people queued three deep to get their drugs tested to check for their purity, the University of Canberra associate professor told
“As many as half say they would bin dodgy drugs; it quite clearly changes people’s opinions. There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind it’s saving lives and saving hospitalisations.”
Prof Caldicott shrugged off criticism drug checking could actually encourage people to take drugs.
“The consuming of illicit drugs is a matter of fact. The idea you can stop it happening is nonsense,” he said. “What we need to do is try and reduce the harm associated with it — it’s not surrender because it was never a viable war.”
OPEN TO NEW IDEAS
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, whose state will host the dance music festival next weekend, said she was open to exploring drug testing stations.
Ms Palaszczuk urged fans attending Stereosonic in Brisbane this weekend to be responsible.
“Go out and have a good time. But what we have seen is that there can be tragic consequences when drugs are involved,” she said.
The Premier said she would consider calls for drug-testing kits at festivals so revellers would know what was in the substances they were taking.
NO SAFE WAY TO TAKE DRUGS
But the father of Sydney teenager Anna Wood, who died in 1995 after taking an ecstasy pill, argues there are no safe ways to take drugs.
Tony Wood said the tragedy of his daughter’s death had been forgotten.
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http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/he...s/news-story/51c0b81315dd2593ad9878f99e8f0aa7
