Federal MP tells SA Govt to crack down on drug testing
A Federal Government MP is calling on the South Australian Government to crack down on illegal drug testing at rave parties.
At the Winter Enchanted rave party at Pooraka, in Adelaide's north, on Saturday night the group Enlighten Harm Reduction was testing drugs despite being refused permission by the Government to do so.
The Federal Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health, Christopher Pyne, says drug-testing at raves is illegal and dangerous and raises a number of legal issues.
"If a drug is tested by someone and handed back to that individual [the person who handed the drug over for testing], then that individual overdoses because they [the person conducting the drug testing] could not detect a particular substance in that drug, then the person who tested the drug and gave it back to has a serious legal obligation placed on them," Mr Pyne said.
Mr Pyne says the State Government must ensure there is no illegal testing conducted.
"The South Australian police force should be taking the appropriate action to detect drug testing and arrest those people who are testing drugs without a licence," Mr Pyne said.
But medical researcher from the Royal Adelaide Hospital Dr David Caldicott says authorities should be talking to those in the dance party community about how they can reduce drug use.
"That's the most practical approach. To call for some moral religious crusade against drug users won't work and will further isolate this population in our community," Dr Caldicott said.
He says Mr Pyne appears unaware of the consequences of his demands.
"If he's suggesting police raids I suspect he hasn't examined the consequences that have resulted elsewhere in the world," Dr Caldicott said.
"It results in huge overdoses and a huge burden on the hospital environment and more chronically drives the dance scene underground to venues which are not supervised, do not have medical support, do not have security and as a consequence are far more dangerous to the patrons."
From ABC News
