One dead, one in a coma, two others stable after Sydney festival overdoses

[CroydonDog]

Just start pill testing FFS.

You can moralise until the cows come home (and the Kennel has more tut-tutters than most places), but no amount of policing will change that. Drug use needs to stop being treated at a legal issue and start being treated as a social/medical issue.

 

[CroydonDog]

Really? Well... if that dance festival didn't go ahead on Saturday, that kid would still be alive, and 3 others would've be fighting for their lives. It sounds like your the one with the head in the sand pretending nothing is wrong. And FYI... chances of them taking drugs at a music festival are a lot higher than them taking it fart arsing around at home or whatever else that would've been doing had that festival not gone ahead. It's call peer pressure.

That comment is wrong on pretty much every level.

 

[Pity Fool]

I agree. I have had tthis debate on here before. People are up in arms every time a story of an overdose occurs, yet just another story of someone drunk behind the wheel dies ir kills someone else and there are no threads at all.
Not to say a drug overdose is a good thing, its just that peoples perception of alcohol is very different to drugs, yet alcohol kills and harms more people on a daily basis yest is largely ignored.
Im pretty sure every NRL player responsible for hitting their misses was drinking at the time.

Alcohol is a legal product, hense more widely used, drugs are not, hense less fatalities and victims! I’m sure if drugs were legal the numbers would be similar if not, worse! Both of them are stains on society, if you use either in excess and do not care about the ramifications of your actions then you should be dealt the harshest of penalties, only problem is our softcock governments and courts do not deal out penalties equivalent to the crimes, and these imbociles who act as though they are gods unto themselves take innocent lives with them, yet only receive a slap on the wrist in return.

 

[south of heaven]

Stop making shitty music and you would need drugs at a festival

 

[Mr Invisible]

I've been hitting social media today with this one...

#1 - You cannot really compare pill popping at a concert to drunk driving. To do so you'd need to compare the number of drivers on a road vs those who have ever drunk driven before vs those that got away with it or did so without crashing, vs those that crashed, vs those that caused a fatality. Way too many variables. Compare that to concert goers vs drug taking concert goers vs drug taking concert goers that are now dead.

#2 - It's a rave / dance festival culture thing. Do you see this sort of thing at metal/rock/folk/kpop/pop festivals? How many drug deaths were recorded at Soundwave, Big Day Out, or Homebake events over the years? Or Falls? Or Splendour? Or the many John Farnham Reunion Tours?

#3 - Pill testing isn't a solution, it's an excuse. It comes with way too many legal and ethical issues to even be considered.
Handing the drugs over for testing - can have you charged with supply with intent.
Being a tester and testing the drugs - can have you charged with possession of a controlled substance.
Being a tester and handing the drugs back - can have you charged with supply.

In addition several festivals have considered doing it in the past and pulled out at last minute due to concerns of reliability (Groovin the Moo springs to mind).

Then there's the issue with what pill testing offers. All it does is tell you what is in the pill and breaks down the chemical composition. It doesn't tell you if you'll got into anaphalactyc shock taking it, it does tell you how YOUR body will react to putting such substances in it, and it certain cant tell you how many to take.

So you go from a situation of "is what is in the drug going to kill me" to "will my body react in a deadly fashin to whats in this drug" and/or "how many can I take before I overdose if it's safe".

It also can't test for ice/meth/cocaine/heroin, or how such drugs will react with medication the person may be taking, or alcohol.

Put simply... it's pointless.

#4 - There is really only 2 ways to prevent this sort of thing happening again:
1. Ban all events/festivals that promote/glorify this sort of thing.
2. Prevent drugs being taken into the event via strict enforcement (however historically at some festivals junkies have buried/hidden drugs at the venue leading up to the event).

Whilst you could hold the organisers accountable (because lets be honest they talk big about anti drugs, yet allow it to happen in plain sight during their events), that won't work either.

I suppose the other option which deals with the issue wholesale is to clamp down on drug dealers/suppliers/users on a larger scale. Put a few in front of the firing squad and see if suddenly the reaction towards drug taking/using/manufacturing/dealing decreases.

 

[Mr Invisible]

Meh. Call me black hearted but whatever. Plenty more young, dumb idiots where that came from. This isn't the first and it sure as shit won't be the last. "oMg someone died playing Russian roulette. Way 2 young"

I commented earlier today on Facebook to someone who was going on about this: "Would you put bullets in a revolver, spin the barrel, put it to your head and pull the trigger ... because the same risk applies here".

It's the younger generations bulletproof mentality that "i'll never happen to me".

 

[Pity Fool]

Stop making shitty music and you would need drugs at a festival

Agreed, They can stick their DOOF DOOF right up their fucken arse, as well as a suppository! Got no soul that music.

 

[Hacky McAxe]

They have the means to stop the deaths with pill testing but they won't do it because they think it'll give the kids an excuse to take drugs. They're already taking them anyway and they'll keep taking them, so why not just test the bloody things and save a few lives?

 

[Hacky McAxe]

I've been hitting social media today with this one...

#1 - You cannot really compare pill popping at a concert to drunk driving. To do so you'd need to compare the number of drivers on a road vs those who have ever drunk driven before vs those that got away with it or did so without crashing, vs those that crashed, vs those that caused a fatality. Way too many variables. Compare that to concert goers vs drug taking concert goers vs drug taking concert goers that are now dead.

#2 - It's a rave / dance festival culture thing. Do you see this sort of thing at metal/rock/folk/kpop/pop festivals? How many drug deaths were recorded at Soundwave, Big Day Out, or Homebake events over the years? Or Falls? Or Splendour? Or the many John Farnham Reunion Tours?

#3 - Pill testing isn't a solution, it's an excuse. It comes with way too many legal and ethical issues to even be considered.
Handing the drugs over for testing - can have you charged with supply with intent.
Being a tester and testing the drugs - can have you charged with possession of a controlled substance.
Being a tester and handing the drugs back - can have you charged with supply.

In addition several festivals have considered doing it in the past and pulled out at last minute due to concerns of reliability (Groovin the Moo springs to mind).

Then there's the issue with what pill testing offers. All it does is tell you what is in the pill and breaks down the chemical composition. It doesn't tell you if you'll got into anaphalactyc shock taking it, it does tell you how YOUR body will react to putting such substances in it, and it certain cant tell you how many to take.

So you go from a situation of "is what is in the drug going to kill me" to "will my body react in a deadly fashin to whats in this drug" and/or "how many can I take before I overdose if it's safe".

It also can't test for ice/meth/cocaine/heroin, or how such drugs will react with medication the person may be taking, or alcohol.

Put simply... it's pointless.

#4 - There is really only 2 ways to prevent this sort of thing happening again:
1. Ban all events/festivals that promote/glorify this sort of thing.
2. Prevent drugs being taken into the event via strict enforcement (however historically at some festivals junkies have buried/hidden drugs at the venue leading up to the event).

Whilst you could hold the organisers accountable (because lets be honest they talk big about anti drugs, yet allow it to happen in plain sight during their events), that won't work either.

I suppose the other option which deals with the issue wholesale is to clamp down on drug dealers/suppliers/users on a larger scale. Put a few in front of the firing squad and see if suddenly the reaction towards drug taking/using/manufacturing/dealing decreases.

Not addressing everything but in regard to pill testing, there are policies in place. When it was carried out at a festival earlier in the year they had full anonymity policies in place that protected both parties, but people were still arrested if they were caught bringing drugs into the festival.

And to use your analogy, it's like playing Russian Roulette. Pill testing just removed the bullets. How can that be a bad thing?

 

[Hacky McAxe]

Technically in that scenario pill testing wouldn't actually remove the bullets. It would just tell you if there's a bullet in the chamber. They still say, "but you can still pull the trigger if you want"

As a side note, at least 2 tested pills at the concert were found to contain lethal ingredients, so that's two lives saves by pill testing.

 

[Mr Invisible]

Not addressing everything but in regard to pill testing, there are policies in place. When it was carried out at a festival earlier in the year they had full anonymity policies in place that protected both parties, but people were still arrested if they were caught bringing drugs into the festival.

And to use your analogy, it's like playing Russian Roulette. Pill testing just removed the bullets. How can that be a bad thing?

Pill testing in my analogy, the bullet is unremovable (it's the pill), hence it would simply say "you'll fire a bullet but it just may not kill you".

Also keep in mind many people will be popping them before entering the establishment, whilst others will hit trouble when booze (and whatever else they've taken or are on) combines with the ingredients of said pill.

So pill could test as "fine", but when combined with nangs, or cocaine, or alcohol, or pseudo, or even dehydration, or meds they are on for something else, could create a deadly reaction.

There really isn't any solution to allow the safe use of drugs, testing or otherwise, because variables are far too great.

What the advocates fail to highlight is overseas deaths have still occurred even with testing, but it doesn't fit the narative they are driving. Reduced or otherwise, I'd say the number of pill related deaths a year is currently acceptable without society changing to accommodate junkies.

The other option is simply to NOT TAKE DRUGS and have 0% risk. If that message isn't clear enough let the bodies pile up.

Less burden on the health care system in the long run.

 

[K E]

I like how it's politician's fault some junkie had to have their hit and OD'ed.

It's like those assholes who smoke all their life and sue the cigarette companies.

It's always someone else's fault.

 

[Bad Billy]

Meh, another dead junkie.
Am I supposed to cry ?

 

[Bad Billy]

They have the means to stop the deaths with pill testing but they won't do it because they think it'll give the kids an excuse to take drugs. They're already taking them anyway and they'll keep taking them, so why not just test the bloody things and save a few lives?

Pill testing won’t stop the deaths, not even close.
They can’t guarantee a drug is safe. What’s safe for some isn’t safe for others.

 

[Hacky McAxe]

Pill testing in my analogy, the bullet is unremovable (it's the pill), hence it would simply say "you'll fire a bullet but it just may not kill you".

Also keep in mind many people will be popping them before entering the establishment, whilst others will hit trouble when booze (and whatever else they've taken or are on) combines with the ingredients of said pill.

So pill could test as "fine", but when combined with nangs, or cocaine, or alcohol, or pseudo, or even dehydration, or meds they are on for something else, could create a deadly reaction.

There really isn't any solution to allow the safe use of drugs, testing or otherwise, because variables are far too great.

What the advocates fail to highlight is overseas deaths have still occurred even with testing, but it doesn't fit the narative they are driving. Reduced or otherwise, I'd say the number of pill related deaths a year is currently acceptable without society changing to accommodate junkies.

The other option is simply to NOT TAKE DRUGS and have 0% risk. If that message isn't clear enough let the bodies pile up.

Less burden on the health care system in the long run.

Of course. Safest option is to not take drugs but as I said, they're going to take them. So the options are:

- tell them to not take drugs, watch people die

- tell them to not take drugs and pill test and watch less people die

It's not an either/or thing. We can pill test and tell people to not take drugs.

 

[Bad Billy]

Technically in that scenario pill testing wouldn't actually remove the bullets. It would just tell you if there's a bullet in the chamber. They still say, "but you can still pull the trigger if you want"

As a side note, at least 2 tested pills at the concert were found to contain lethal ingredients, so that's two lives saves by pill testing.

What’s a “lethal ingredient” ? Everything is lethal if you ingest enough, even water. Conversely even beryllium is safe in low enough quantities.
How do you know what’s safe to take ? Or is the junkie working the testing station supposed to advise you ?

 

[Hacky McAxe]

Pill testing won’t stop the deaths, not even close.
They can’t guarantee a drug is safe. What’s safe for some isn’t safe for others.

Of course it won't stop all deaths. Drugs are drugs for a reason. They're literally poisoning you. My point is that it will reduce the number of deaths.

Think of it like a speed limit on a road. If you reduce the speed limit from 110 to 90 in an area and instead of 20 people dying a year, only 4 people die per year. You're not going to say, "that's not working" and put the speed limit back up.

 

[Alexander the Great]

Really? Well... if that dance festival didn't go ahead on Saturday, that kid would still be alive, and 3 others would've be fighting for their lives. It sounds like your the one with the head in the sand pretending nothing is wrong. And FYI... chances of them taking drugs at a music festival are a lot higher than them taking it fart arsing around at home or whatever else that would've been doing had that festival not gone ahead. It's call peer pressure.

So should we shut down nightclubs/bars/clubs also?

 

[Hacky McAxe]

What’s a “lethal ingredient” ? Everything is lethal if you ingest enough, even water. Conversely even beryllium is safe in low enough quantities.
How do you know what’s safe to take ? Or is the junkie working the testing station supposed to advise you ?

Read up on the drug testing. They test ingredients and in many cases they can't tell you it's safe and it's not like they're saying "dude, this is good, take it". They're saying, "this contains rat poison. Don't take it", or "this doesn't contain rat poison but contains other stuff that may fuck you up. Take it at your own risk"

 

[Hacky McAxe]

So should we shut down nightclubs/bars/clubs also?

Definitely nightclubs. Just 'cause.