Calls For Pill Testing After MDMA Overdoses At Melbourne Rave
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There are renewed calls to introduce pill testing, days after suspected MDMA overdoses at a Melbourne music festival left eight people in a medically induced coma.
The incident occurred at the Hardmission electronic music festival, held at the Flemington racecourse last Saturday.
In 2023, the Queensland government announced it would allow pill testing and ACT is trialling a pill testing service. No other jurisdiction, including NSW and Victoria, has indicated that they would allow pill testing.
Victoria’s Department of Health in May 2023, issued a health alert that synthetic cathinones and PMMA were being sold as MDMA, cocaine or speed. Months later, NSW Health warned that a high-dose MDMA tablet (ecstasy), that was found to contain more than four times the average dose of other MDMA tablets, was in circulation in NSW.
In September 2023, Victorian State Coroner Judge John Cain recommended that the government introduce drug-checking services in the state. This followed an investigation into the 2022 death of a 26-year-old man after consuming a highly potent MDMA pill called ‘Blue Punisher’.
‘Pill Testing Can Save Lives’
The NSW Council for Civil Liberties urged the NSW government to immediately introduce pill testing services.
“Pill testing is a crucial harm reduction measure that can save lives and prevent tragic incidents like those witnessed in Melbourne. The necessity for pill testing has once again been underscored by the critical condition of eight individuals following the music festival,” the organisation said in a statement.
“The paramount aim of all government drug policy should be harm reduction. It is time to replace punitive drug policies with an evidence-based and rights-based approach. In NSW, we call on the government to end the punitive approach to policing at music festivals and other venues. This includes an immediate cessation of the use of drug detection dogs and the practice of strip searches.”
The NSW Council for Civil Liberties pointed out that in the past decade, the average drug dog detection success rate was barely just 25 per cent.
‘Prohibitionist Drug Policies Have Failed’
Australian Lawyers Alliance said that prohibitionist drug policies have failed and government should listen to health experts and implement drug-checking services to help keep people safe.
” Year after year young people die or suffer serious harm at music festivals and drug checking will help to minimise this,” Greg Barns SC, criminal justice spokesperson, Australian Lawyers Alliance, said in a statement.
“Fixed and festival-based services that check the content and purity of illicit drugs will help prevent these types of drug-related health emergencies. As well as analysing the illicit drugs, these services provide valuable advice to help people make informed decisions about drug use,” Barns added.
